LOS ANGELES—Leah Gotti tells AVN this time she is coming with a game plan.
The Texas native, who stepped away from adult in 2016 after a whirlwind debut that saw her perform in dozens of sex scenes for several major studios, says she is making a gradual return with her sights set on producing and owning her product.
“My mindset is to just take it really slow and go with the flow of things,” Gotti says. “I don’t really want to force anything. Last time I just jumped into things and I didn’t really have any guidance.”
The 23-year-old, who resides in Dallas, says she’s in the process of starting her own production company as she eases back into adult work this year.
“I want to shoot stuff that’s really natural and pretty—not forced—with real orgasms and people who are genuinely excited to be there,” Gotti explains. “And I’m working with a team of people that aren’t from the adult world. They’re all from very different walks of life. That’s what makes it so special. They all have different outlooks on what real sex is.”
She adds, “I wasn’t retired, I was just hibernating.”
Gotti intends to place her content on DVD in addition to her upcoming official website, LoveLeahGotti.com—and hopes to launch with her first DVD in the summer of 2021.
“It’s just really a grand awakening,” Gotti says.
The popular performer reveals she will be open to doing occasional scenes for companies other than her own, but she will be selective—and this time she'll book her own work.
"I am going to shoot for certain companies—companies that I feel like always valued me as a performer or treated me fairly and made me feel important and beautiful,” Gotti says. “I’m just going to limit what I do that isn’t for my own company.
“I want to maintain a certain image for my content.”
She’s been in discussions with one prominent studio to do a special scene for which her fans have been asking.
“It’s going to be a scene that’s going to break the internet,” Gotti says with a laugh. “It’s a combination that people haven’t gotten yet but have always requested with probably the most iconic female performer to ever grace the industry.”
Meanwhile, Gotti is already shooting for her new studio venture.
“And in two weeks I’m going to another state to shoot with someone else,” she says. “I’m not going to be shooting with the normal household names.”
Even though Gotti stopped performing—and posting on social media—in 2016 after about 100 scenes in her first eight-plus months in adult, her fanfare from the #GottiGang hasn’t waned. In fact, it’s become apparent the demand for new Leah Gotti content is stronger than ever. In July she started an OnlyFans page and at press time this week she was tracking in the top 0.6% on the platform.
But that’s only the half of it.
Gotti continues to generate thousands of daily views on Pornhub, where this week she was ranked No. 46 in the Most Popular Porn Stars category with 269 million video views and 409,000-plus subscribers. Perhaps more impressive is she’s been a fixture in the Pornhub Top 50 despite not having shot anything new in years.
“I love my fans,” Gotti says. “I’ve always been very interactive online. … I don’t have a lot of friends. I’m not really good when it comes to trusting people and developing a true friendship where I talk to people about stuff. It’s easier for me to talk to people via the internet. I’ve developed really good friendships with a lot of my fans. They tell me interesting things.
“On my OnlyFans we just text like normal and we talk about stuff that’s going on in our lives. My interaction with my fans is like my counseling. It makes me laugh and they teach me things about their cultures from around the world.”
Gotti has been posting mostly topless photos on her OnlyFans along with lifestyle clips.
“I did my first-ever cam show two nights ago,” she says. “I had never done one and I set my phone up in my room and I masturbated and it was fun. … One of my fans ordered me a spinning wheel [for camming].”
Now armed with the perspective of time, a newfound inner strength and renewed purpose, Gotti admits she was in a difficult place mentally and emotionally when she walked away from the adult biz in 2016.
“I felt really alone,” she recalls. “Your family is your blood but sometimes they might not have your best interests in mind. I was trying so hard to make other people happy that I forgot about myself.”
She also was involved in what she calls a “toxic” relationship and felt herself “spiraling” in L.A., so she decided to leave California and return to Texas.
“And I tried to work normal jobs. I was working as a banquet girl at a golf course and people would torment me once they found out I did porn. I was sexually harassed at work. People would say certain things to me and act certain ways because I did porn,” she says. “I even went back to college for a moment to try to become a paramedic but there were other things going on in my personal life that weren’t allowing me to fully focus.”
During her hiatus, Gotti also became a mother.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mom,” she says.
But Gotti says her daughter’s father did not want her to be in adult and would shame her for her past.
“He was always talking down on me about being in the industry,” she says. “I developed a hate for myself, where I couldn’t even look in the mirror. I would think that people don’t think I can be a good mom.”
She worked her way up to assistant manager at Palm Beach Tan, but when her bosses found out about her porn, “I got transferred and fired.”
During what she says was “one of the lowest points in my life” in 2018, she did an interview for a Christian TV show because she wanted to be accepted to a church.
“I was trying so hard to be normal and for them to accept me and I think people took my words a little bit the wrong way,” Gotti says, adding she didn’t intend for her remarks to come off as if she was blaming the industry for her past drug use—because she wasn’t.
“I had access to money because I did porn and that allowed me to be able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and that’s why I got out of control,” she adds. “I was not in a good headspace. I wanted my family to be OK with me.
“I think a lot of girls in the porn world might go through that, where their family is let down and disappointed…
“I don’t regret going on the show at all. But everyone should know I didn’t get paid for that. It was free. It was me giving my testimony to a church. I just wanted the world to know, ‘I’m Leah Gotti. I’m a good mom and I’ve been through a lot in my life.’”
In February 2019, Gotti ended her volatile relationship and decided to leave.
“I just packed my car up with my daughter and came back to Texas from Georgia to start a new life,” she says.
Through it all she says she’s learned valuable lessons about herself that she hopes by sharing can help other girls who may be experiencing personal challenges.
“I really want all the other girls to know—girls or guys—I’ve been through a lot of shit and I’m someone who wants to help people when they’re sad,” Gotti says. “I’m the type of person who will turn my car around if I see an elderly person struggling—or anyone.
“You can reach out to me and I’ll have a few laughs with you and try to make you smile. You don’t have to feel isolated. I know how isolating the world can feel, but you’re not alone. If you feel isolated it’s just that you’re not looking far enough in front of you.”
Gotti, who will turn 24 on December 4, says she will remain a freelance performer as she returns to the industry.
“I’m not going to have an agency behind me,” she says, adding that she believes today’s performer can utilize social media for outreach without having to rely on an agent.
“If you have an Instagram account or a Twitter account, you can follow those companies and reach out yourselves. You don’t have to have this guy or gal taking a percentage. Girls can do it themselves. It’s not as hard as they think,” Gotti reasons. “You have to be confident. I’ve seen a lot of girls come into the industry and get completely destroyed. I was getting destroyed but it wasn’t from the industry. It was from the stuff going on in my personal life.”
Gotti says she’s also learned that performers are in control of their own careers.
“I think that it’s really important for girls to know that they don’t have to do all those crazy things in order to gain fans because your fans just want you to be a real person,” she says. “They don’t want you to be a different person when the cameras are turned on. They can tell if you’re faking orgasms. They can tell if you’re into it. All those things are real.”
Photography by Dylan Nguyen
