Tabatha Cash

Tabatha Cash was born in 1974, in Paris, France. Although she later claimed to be of Japanese-Italian extraction, in reality her father was from Algeria and her mother was French. She grew up in the South Paris slum of Cit6 Massy, but claims: "I lived for 16 years in a Paris South suburb and I really enjoyed myself!" While growing up, Tabatha was a flat-cheasted skinny girl. "By 12 or 13, my breasts started growing before all the other girls but it also stopped earlier, and when I looked at myself, it gave me a complex. So I had my breasts operated on twice, because if I was a man, I would hardly be aroused by a girl as flat as [Jane] Birkin."

Tabatha was a strong-willed teenager, who had an aversion to work. "I was romantic and loved the idea that I'd meet a charming prince one day. I wanted to be like a princess and not work." She was developing into an attractive young girl, and knew how to use what she had in order to get what she wanted. "My first kiss was with a guy who had spots and greasy hair and was very ugly. I was in love with another teenager but I didn't want to kiss him because I didn't know how. So I learned with the ugly guy, it was so unpleasant." According to Tabatha: "I was 14-years-old when I had my first sexual experience."

As a teenager, Tabatha developed an obsession for money. "I wasn't like all the other little girls saying, 'I want to be a doctor' or anything. The only dream I had was to have money." "It came when I was 13-14 years old. It was almost a disease. I was quite deranged by this time. At first I was a model pupil at school, then I started needing much more pocket money than my parents could afford. I shoplifted a little but mostly pick-pocketed. I stole motorbikes, mountain bikes, scooters. And I also stripped jackets, jewels and wallets on all RER [French underground] lines." At fifteen she was finally arrested and sent to a young offenders prison for four months. She later claimed: "I'm not proud to have been in prison, but I'm proud of not having been a victim. I have no regrets about that."

When Tabatha was released from prison she continued stealing and eventually became involved with a group of French neo-Nazi skinheads. Their leader was the son of a Turkish immigrant, called Serge Ayoub [aka Batskin], and at seventeen Tabatha became his girlfriend. It was then that she had a tattoo of a triple seven solar wheel (also the symbol of the South African Afrikaans extreme-right) done on her right breast. She later had a rose tattooed over this to hide it.

In 1991 her best friend was again arrested for stealing and sent to prison. Tabatha decided that picking pockets on the underground without a back up was too dangerous, and began to look for an easier way to make money. Tabatha admits: "I would do anything for the things I want." As a result, when she met a man who specialised in nude and hard-core pornographic photographs, she acquired false identification papers and applied for a job as a model. "I needed money because I have always been a big spender. I was still at school when I was offered to pose for nude photos. It was easy money and I could make more in one day than in a month with a regular job. The lure of gain overcame any resistance I could have." Tabatha did her first hard-core photo shoot when she was still seventeen. A few months after her eighteenth birthday she realised there was more money to be made doing movies, and appeared in her first hardcore porn film. "It was the fastest way to get out of my environment. It was purely for the money."

"Tabatha Cash was just the perfect pseudonym since cash was my only motivation. I was a bitch for porno. Full stop. Because that's just what selling your ass is, with or without the camera. I never tried to hide behind a hypocrite image of actress like so many others. From 18 to 20 I faced what I was doing. And then I could look at myself in the mirror every morning thinking: 'You're a bitch. That's the way you chose to earn your life, that's all.'"

Tabatha later claimed: "I never had any problems in front of the camera." "It takes half an hour to do a scene and it goes very quickly. It's not beautiful, so it's just fucking and it's very easy. I was never nervous because it was a job I decided to do and I know what it meant. I knew that to do a porn movie meant you had to fuck in front of many people. The first time I had no feelings. The first time I took the easy money, I liked it - that was the only feeling I had."

Regardless of why she decided to make porn films, her beautiful face and figure soon made her one of the most popular porn stars in Europe, and the most popular French star since Marilyn Jess in the mid-1980's. Although she had her limits: "I never get involved with pee-pee or sadomasochism or animals", Tabatha seemed willing to do almost anything on camera. "I did the maximum to be discovered. I wasn't surprised by my fame because I did everything for that." As a result she was soon filmed taking part in double penetrations and gangbangs, and despite her claim that "I don't like sex just for sex", she was always enthusiastic.

Tabatha's turbulent past and altercations with the law meant that her parents knew she was an unpredictable girl. Nevertheless, they were surprised and shocked when they realised that their daughter had begun appearing in porn films. "My family were sad, you can't be happy to see your daughter fuck in front of the camera. But it was my life, not theirs… I was thinking of easy money. I was afraid of living without money." Yet although Tabatha constantly expounded her love of money, she was not very savvy when it came to managing it. "When you fuck for money it's so easy that you spend it easy. You don't respect the money… All the time I was in the business I was taking drugs. Two grams of cocaine a day. I could even sleep after sniffing some."

During her first year as a porn star Tabatha married the same person she lost her virginity to, four years earlier. The marriage lasted until 1994. According to Tabatha, "My husband couldn't handle my work". Ironically they were divorced the same year she quit making porn films. Nevertheless, friction had also arisen as a result of her increasing cocaine habit, and her incessant attraction to money. Tabatha has always admitted that: "I only had sex for business or with my husband… [But] I won't tell you how much I get into bed for or how much I earn for a movie." This emphasis on trading sex for money has been raised by her a number of times, and rumours constantly circulated that her willingness to sell herself was not limited to her on-screen performances.

By this point Tabatha Cash had become the most popular porn star in Europe, and began to break in to the US market. She appeared in a number of American films, such as 'Sodomania 3' (1993), 'Tales From The Zipper' (1993) and 'Up 'N' Cummers-The Movie' (1994). Most of her roles, however, simply comprised of loops. Furthermore, most of her US made movies lacked the quality and passion of those that had made her so famous in Europe.

In 1993 she starred in one of her best films to date, the French made 'Reves De Cuir 2', directed by Francis Lerois. Although not as good as the original, starring Zara Whites, it became one of the most successful European porn films of the year. On the strength of this movie, in 1994 she won the Hot d'Or for best adult film actress, at the Cannes Film Festival. By this point she had reached the height of her popularity, while simultaneously becoming a French national icon. Soon after the awards the cable television channel Canal Plus offered her a job as presenter for a new game show it was launching. She accepted the job and ended her porn career. "I did it all for money and when I got money, I didn't need to do anything anymore." During the same year she appeared in the French mainstream film 'Rai', before eventually starting a nightly sex advice programme on one of the most popular French radio stations, Skyrock. Nevertheless, she had no plans on moving into the mainstream. "I liked the experience, but only one time. One movie was perfect: two would be bad. One year for radio was good, two would be terrible. Anyway, I'm not made to work."

Towards the end of 1994 she became involved with Frank Vardan, publisher of 'Hot Video', a French adult movie review magazine. "When I met Frank, he was so strict, he never did drugs. I had to decide between very bad things and him, so I stopped everything." On 7 January 1995, pregnant Tabatha Cash married for the second time announcing that her plans for the future involved having four children and being a mother.

Following her decision to end her involvement in porn, Tabatha made a number of high profile interviews condemning the adult industry. Many of these interviews were littered with inaccuracies or untruths. In 1994 she claimed: "The way I actually got into the business is I needed money to go to school… In the second year… I became famous so I could decide everything. So in the second year I never worked without a condom. And if the producers did not accept a condom for the movie then they had to pay for a girl who had the same colour of skin as me and she acted as a double for me in the sex scenes… When I was on set I would always fight against anything I didn't like. If I didn't like an actor or an actress I always asked for them to be out of my movie. After the first year I stopped doing anal… I always knew the pornographic business is bullshit and that the actors and actresses are all arseholes and bitches. I knew what I had to offer and what I wanted out of the business… The guys who work in that business are so ugly and so stupid they are victims because they don't have anywhere else to make money. They only have their cock to work with, and if they didn't have that they'd be homeless. It's the same for the girls; they have to choose between working in a coffee shop or doing porno. They're poor people. They're victims and they are not my life. I was in that business through choice - to be rich."

Tabatha Cash did not enter porn in order to go to school and she did not work with condoms after her first year. Although she did carry weight within the industry due to her star status, producers would not hire stand-ins for her sex scenes. As for her refusing to do anal after 1992, this is also not true. Her last two films before she quit the business were 'Marco Polo' and 'Les Visiteuses'. Although in 'Les Visiteuses' (her final film) she only appeared in one masturbation scene, in 'Marco Polo' she had anal sex with Rocco Siffredi a number of times. Tabatha claimed that: "They might use my face and body but I took the money. I sold my body but not my brain or soul. So I did the exploiting." Considering the other main porn stars in Europe at the time, such as Moana Pozzi, Zara Whites and Julia Channel were also making films for financial or exhibitionist reasons, one wonders why Tabatha regarded herself as being so different, and more importantly, so superior.

Unlike some former porn stars in the US, however, such as Traci Lords and Linda Lovelace, Tabatha Cash never portrayed herself as a victim. She knew exactly what the adult industry was and what it entailed. "When you sell your butt, your exploited - but the most important thing is to know that and make more money from it." Despite her original criticism of the business, by 1995 her confrontational attitude seemed to have mellowed. In an interview given a few weeks before her second marriage she confessed "I have a lot of experience for someone of 21. And I'm not a judge, I'm not Jesus, I'm just Tabatha. And nobody can shock me. I've seen so many things I can't be shocked."

Along with Laure Sainclair and Marilyn Jess, Tabatha Cash was the most popular French porn star of the last twenty years. She had a beautiful face, a stunning figure, and appeared in some of the most erotic porn films of the early 1990's. She was always candid as to why she entered the adult industry, and has always admitted to having an aversion to work. Appearing in porn films meant fast and easy money. She was not an idealist like Moana Pozzi, and she was not an exhibitionist like Zara Whites or Nici Sterling. According to Tabatha, "I was a prostitute, I sold my ass."

Real Name: Celine Bard
Date of Birth: 27/12/1973
Place of Birth: France France
Height: 1,74m/5’8”
Stats: 38-22-33
Film Career: 1992-1994