‘An extra bone in my foot ended ballet dream, but I met stars instead’
A stay-at-home wife has shared details of her glamorous life - including rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. Mary Carey has lived a life most people only dream of, having posed for Hustler magazine, and mixing with celebrities like Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Playboy bunnies and even meeting Hugh Hefner. The former "party girl" first entered the scene as a stripper and has even run for government against Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In a tell-all tale, Mary, now 43, married to a doctor and working at home as a cam girl, reveals how she went from small-town girl to adult superstar. "I always wanted to perform for a crowd," Mary, who has 795,000 followers[1], said .[2] "From the youngest age, I was putting on shows and dreamed of being a dancer and joining the Royal Ballet. But life didn't turn out that way.
"Doctors discovered I had grown an extra bone in my ankle that needed to be removed. The injury meant that I could not stand on pointe properly and it was extremely painful.
Mary Carey as a ballerina (Jam Press)"I decided not to have the surgery and had to give up my dancing career, or so I thought - until a few years later, I saw a competition for a strip club. I was already out drinking and dancing with my friends every night and thought it would be fun to get paid to be a sexy party girl.
"I won first place and I absolutely loved it. The nudity didn't phase me." Mary left her hometown and moved to Los Angeles when she was 21 years old.
She began stripping regularly to fund her lifestyle and pay the bills, and often encountered celebrities while at nightclubs or at the strip club. She said: "I wanted to progress in the world of stripping and the way to do that was to become a 'feature girl.' They are paid up to £5,000 for one appearance in a club and are on flyers and billboards. "I started doing photo shoots for magazines to raise my profile and gain some celebrity status.
I was making £250 a day to start but that number soon climbed up." When friends told Mary that acting in porn was the best way to get more fans and promote herself, that's what she did. Mary said: "I made porn a part of my mission to get the best dance gigs.
I found a soft porn VHS in Blockbuster and I literally wrote to the studio address on the cover with my picture asking to be considered as an actress. "I always saw the porn movies as an opportunity to raise my price as a touring dancer and took whatever work came my way. "Plus I was paid tons of money.
For six movies a year, I made £100,000." A rising star in the adult industry, Mary - who also worked for Playboy TV - visited the Playboy Mansion seven times, and even met Hugh Hefner at a staff party in 2003 - saying it was "it was brief but he was very sweet".
Mary Carey (Jam Press)In a perhaps controversial move, to boost her celebrity status further, Mary decided to run for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003. She came 10th among 135 candidates in the election, campaigning for a "porn and pistols" policy, incorporating the election theme into a sexy strip show.
Mary also claimed that giving free porn to anyone who turned in their gun could reduce gun crime. She said: "I registered to run in August 2003. It was so much fun and really shot me to mainstream fame and pretty much changed my life.
"It was so fun to learn more about our government and to see what support there was for me. I was fun, dumb and full of fun back then but my heart was in the right place." Mary brushed the loss off pretty quickly - spending the next two decades touring clubs, making sexy movies and connecting with fans online.
It wasn't until she met her now-husband, a doctor, in 2017, that she decided to put her wild party girl days behind her. Although she embraced her life as a stay-at-home wife, Mary missed interacting with her fans and still does camming from home. She added: "I love entertaining and I've always been proud of everything I have done.
My work might look different now but it suits me.
"I'm loud and open and have a crazy personality.
The experiences I've had - to be on billboards and going to shows with a police[3] escort and travelling the world - I wouldn't change a thing."