A man who was bullied because of his cerebral palsy has told how he turned to a sex surrogate.
James opened up about his experience in an appearance on This Morning, telling the ITV show’s hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard how the experience has been life-changing for him.
Sitting on the sofa alongside his sex surrogate Saurora Grace, James said he’d been bullied through school and afterwards, explaining: “I guess there’s a weird thing where I sort of walk the line between disabled and able-bodied and people don’t really know how to handle that.”
He said it got to “a point where I just stopped leaving the house because I’d have people spit at me, throw apples at me”.
View 3 ImagesJames appeared on the ITV show with sex surrogate Saurora Grace(Image: ITV screengrab)
James said he tried lots of different things but was “not really in a good place” and “felt very lost”.
When a friend suggested he try a sex surrogate, he decided to give it a go.
“It becomes one of those things where you go, once you’ve gone through it, you go, ‘I wish I’d done it sooner’,” he said. “Because it, it can be extremely life-changing. It changed a lot for me.
“You don’t sort of, realise the need for connection and things because it’s not what people think it is. It’s not like, there’s a lot of preconceived notions about it and different things, and that’s why I wanted to talk about it.”
Saurora then explained: “Sex surrogacy is all about the intention behind it. So it’s more holistic. There’s a more of a therapeutic aspect to it. It’s all about connection, intimacy, and literally seeing and hearing the person. Like, a lot of us all want to be seen and heard as human beings, and so that is ultimately what it is.
View 3 ImagesCat Deeley and Ben Shephard hosted This Morning(Image: ITV screengrab)
“Obviously, you do have, like, your standard sex work, which is just come in, have sex, and leave. But we do a lot more to do with literally what James has just said – connection, intimacy, seeing and hearing, and helping him to understand that because he’s got a disability, it doesn’t make him, you know, any different from anybody else.
“He’s just the same, and he deserves to have a loving relationship and, you know, deserves to have sex and a juicy lifestyle.”
Asked how her work had helped others, she said: “I get a lot of messages afterwards, and people are like, ‘I’m now not gonna go and kill myself.’ And that really hits.”
“It honestly, in all ways that I could count, it’s changed my life,” said James. “It changed the trajectory of what I’m gonna do with my life. So it’s just been extremely powerful. It’s taken me in directions that I just thought were never doors that would open to someone like me.
“So Saurora’s training me to be a surrogate now. So that’s the career change for me.”
He went on: “I’ve got this lived-in experience that nobody else has got, and I can sort of I’ve been to those dark places, and I really, really want to help people out.”
This Morning airs from 10am on ITV on weekdays.
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For emotional support, you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.