Colourful: Ruggero Freddi’s secret past as a gay porn star was exposed by his pupils
Posing with his beloved Mexican Chihuahua, this is the Italian maths professor with a secret past as a gay porn star as you’ve never seen him before – with his clothes on.
Ruggero Freddi, 41, covered up his six pack and gone were the tight-fitting pants in a photoshoot with MailOnline where he insisted he wants to be taken serious as a maths teacher.
His students discovered his racy, X-rated past after spotting a of him flexing his muscles in a revealing photo on Facebook.
But for the man who starred in porn films such as ‘Big N Plenty’ and ‘Man Country’ says former career has never been a problem – and even his parents are ‘cool with it’.
Speaking to MailOnline at his luxury two-bedroom apartment in central Rome, Ruggero, who teaches maths at La Sapienza University, said that Italy was ‘much more progressive than it might seem’.
‘I never experienced any discrimination against me, neither when I came out as a gay man nor when people found out what I did before I became a maths professor,’ he said.
‘I sometimes I tell [my mother], mom I didn’t find a cure for cancer I made porn movies. She doesn’t mind, neither do my friends, ever.’
He added: ‘The only one being a bit perplexed was my dad. He said, why invest in university to end up doing porn? You could’ve done porn immediately. But in the end he also was cool with it.’
Mr Freddi is an Italian maths professor whose students discovered his racy, X-rated past after spotting a revealing photo of him flexing his muscles on Facebook
Love: Mr Freddi now lives in central Rome with his long-term Argentine boyfriend Gustavo Lugeizamon (pictured), also known as Adam Champ, who he met on the set of one of his films
Despite his X-rated past as a porn star in US films such as ‘Big N Plenty’ and ‘Man Country’, the teacher who lives in Rome, Italy, insists that he wants to be taken seriously as a teacher
Even his students, he said, have been open-minded. ‘They have always been kind and educated with me,’ he said. ‘If they had something to say about me, they never showed it.’
The professor’s only difficulty came last month, when the university cancelled a conference he was arranging on the subject of HIV and Aids.
‘I had booked the conference room in advance but I never received the permission from the head of department,’ he said. ‘All of a sudden also that booking was cancelled.
‘I don’t know what this means, but I don’t think I deserve this. I’m a serious researcher and a good professor.’
Mr Freddi, who has been teaching maths for two years, came to the discipline in 2013 after a nine-year career at the top of the American porn industry, starring in 13 major films.
‘I had been on the cover of every important magazine in the business and I’d won every award,’ he said. ‘I was tired, I had seen everything.
‘I could have stayed in porn, that would have been easier, I was a star after all. But I was getting older. At a certain age it can become pathetic. I wanted to avoid that.’
Support: Mr Freddi and boyfriend Gustavo, who have two Chihuahuas, are based in a lavish €600,000 apartment which Mr Freddi bought with porn money
These days, Ruggero added, after two years of teaching, he is ‘not comfortable with taking my shirt off’, though he still releases provocative topless videos to his 3,000 Facebook followers
Ruggero, who grew up in poverty, came out as gay at the age of 17 and was approached by a porn studio in the early 2000s after posting topless pictures of himself online
He returned to Rome and enrolled in La Sapienza University, where in 2016 he was awarded a PhD. His porn star past was never a secret.
‘I never had any trouble at the university, everyone knows who I am and what I did,’ he said. ‘Some of my professors during my graduation called me ‘Carlo’ [his porn stage name]. I had to make sure they put the right name on the exam, as I didn’t want to do it twice.’
Mr Freddi now lives in central Rome with his long-term Argentine boyfriend Gustavo Lugeizamon, 41, also known as Adam Champ, who he met on the set of one of his films.
The couple, who have two Chihuahuas, are based in a lavish €600,000 apartment which Mr Freddi bought with porn money.
These days, he added, after two years of teaching, he is ‘not comfortable with taking my shirt off’, though he still releases provocative topless videos to his 3,000 followers on Facebook.
‘Only when I know well in advance I have to be naked and I can do a diet and some extra gym time, I’m comfortable with my body,’ he said.
Mr Freddi, who grew up in poverty, came out as gay at the age of 17 and was approached by a porn studio in the early 2000s after posting topless pictures of himself online.
An American pornographer asked him whether he wanted to send across some full nude pictures of himself. ‘I thought someone played a trick on me, but I sent the pictures anyway,’ he said.
‘I didn’t care if they would see me naked.’ Shortly afterwards, he left his native Italy for the United States to pursue a career in pornography.
Assuming the stage name Carlo Masi, he became an overnight sensation in the industry. ‘As soon as I arrived in San Francisco they did everything to pamper me,’ he said.
‘Limo at the airport, expensive hotel, luxurious restaurants, a lot of compliments.’
After agreeing to nude photographs and a ‘solo film’, he finally decided to take the step of ‘having sex for money’ as he wanted the cash, he said.
Posing with their babies: Ruggero and Gustavo, who met in the porn industry, now live a quieter life with their dogs in the Italian capital
‘They offered me an exclusive contract with a monthly pay. They paid extra for every scene and for every photo shoot.
‘They created a website for me of which they took 25 per cent of the profit, that left me with 75 per cent. On top of that, I did live shows in clubs.’
Although Mr Freddi lived his early life in Rome, his parents divorced when he was three and he moved to the small coastal town of Lido dei Pini with his mother.
‘I come from a very poor background. Sometimes there wasn’t even enough money to eat,’ he said.
‘My parents encouraged me to go to school though, as university was the social elevator.
‘When I managed to graduate from university, I studied computer engineering, and I found out the job market had collapsed. I had to find something else. I needed to make money.’