Fired Univ. of Wisconsin prof Joe Gow says he's lost friends over porn

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The University of Wisconsin chancellor who was fired for filming X-rated movies with his wife and sharing the adult content online says they have lost friends and have been forced into difficult conversations with relatives ever since the scandal broke.

UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow, 63, was suspended in December after it was revealed that he and his wife, Carmen Wilson, 56, led a double life as porn stars.

In videos on their “Sexy Healthy Cooking” YouTube channel, the couple cooks vegan meals with well-known adult film stars before viewers are directed to other websites, like OnlyFans, to view explicit content.

Gow and Wilson, who are described on their websites as a “passionate plant-powered couple cooking, conversing and shooting extraordinary sex scenes with top adult stars,” suspect someone recognized them and alerted the university, they told the Times of London.

“We were just really stunned at how quickly [the videos] became popular, and had over a million views,” Wilson, a former psychology professor, told the paper.

Wilson admitted it was “a little bit strange” keeping such a large secret — the couple had only made videos as a hobby since they wed in 2014 before sharing their first video online two months ago.

“I wouldn’t say I’m glad it’s out,” Wilson conceded. “The family reaction is a challenge. I called my mom and she wasn’t super-excited, so that’s not easy.”

For her husband, whose actions were described by his former employer as “abhorrent,” there’s been a noticeable shift in how he is treated.

Two days before the story broke, their local paper was going to name Gow “person of the year,” but quickly scrapped that article to write about him being fired, he said.

“It’s fascinating — before this I was someone you admired and now I’m someone who is reviled, it’s just a really unusual thing,” he told the UK Times. “Some people we talk to are curious and others are like ‘I’ll never talk to you again.’ It’s been very saddening to see some people abandoning us. We’ve lost friends.”

Gow, who held his role for 17 years, insists he never mentioned his job in the videos, which he and his wife say they created in their spare time and while on vacations.

While the reaction from many has been discouraging, the porn industry has welcomed the couple with open arms, they say.

“People in the industry have reached out to us to invite us to work with them, so that’s really refreshing,” Wilson told the news outlet.

The couple, who have co-written several books under pseudonyms about working in the porn industry, are considering future opportunities within the field.

They also say they hope their story leads to the topic being discussed more freely on college campuses.

“We have learnt so much through this experience which would be really interesting to talk about in a class,” Gow said. “I’d be very eager to talk to other universities who have an open mind about this.

“Most college students are looking at pornography so shouldn’t we be talking about it? When everybody settles down, I would hope they would understand this is a very interesting, legitimate, important area of future study,” Gow continued to the UK paper.

“I think in time people will see that was a great academic direction to go.”

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