Terry Crews rebuked JD Vance's porn views following his own addiction.
On Sunday's episode of Bill Maher's podcast, Club Random with Bill Maher, Crews and Maher discussed pornography in the context of the 2024 presidential election.
"You know that the Republican convention is going on right now, and their platform is super hard on pornography," Maher said. "They want to outlaw—I mean this vice president [candidate] JD Vance—they talk about porn like this is something that should be outlawed."
"Can't do that," Crews said, to which Maher agreed, "You can't do that."
"If you know the way the mind works, as soon as you restrict it, you want it more," the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star explained. "This is the way it works."
"I could not possibly want it more," Maher joked. "I already want it maximum."
"Believe me, if someone all of a sudden said you can't, it's all you think about," Crews said.
In 2021, Vance—the Republican Vice Presidential candidate running with former president Donald Trump—spoke out about his views on porn in an interview with Crisis Magazine.
"I think the combination of porn, abortion have basically created a really lonely, isolated generation that isn't getting married, they're not having families, and they're actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other," he told the Catholic outlet.
Newsweek reached out to Vance's team via email for comment.
In 2016, Republicans declared porn a "public health crisis." The now-former governor of Utah, Gary Herbert, signed a resolution to combat pornography.
"Pornography is a public health crisis," Herbert said on the governor's Facebook page at the time. "Today I signed two bills that will bring its dangers to light. S.C.R. 9 calls for additional research and education so that more individuals and families are aware of the harmful effects of pornography."
The resolution stated, "Pornography perpetuates a sexually toxic environment. Efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction, to educate individuals and families concerning its harms, and to develop recovery programs must be addressed systemically in ways that hold broader influences accountable."
Crews has been open in the past about his porn addiction and elaborated on it further during his conversation with Maher.
"I was addicted to porn, I could not stop on pornography," Crews said, explaining that sex wasn't something that was talked about in his religious household.
Crews said he "discovered" porn at his uncle's house when he was about 9 or 10 years old.
"I was messed up, it literally changed in my brain," the 56-year-old said. "The thing is, you have to be over 18, but nobody discovers porn at 18, you're always a little bit before that or more."
"When the computer came out, I would wait a half hour for a computer image to download and be sitting there waiting for it to come," he added. "That just shows you got a problem. It was bad."
Crews went to a rehabilitation facility for his pornography addiction, which threatened his marriage to wife Rebecca King-Crews.
During the podcast, Crews admitted that his "marriage was basically over," but a 90-day sex fast changed his perspective.
"I saw her for her," Crews said, "Whereas before I was like, I saw her in positions and I'm getting bored with that. Then all of a sudden I was like, 'You're so beautiful as a person.' I saw her as a true human being that I could really love and appreciate."
Crews and King-Crews have been married since 1989 and share five children—Azriel, Tera, Wynfrey, Isaiah and Naomi. When the America's Got Talent host first met King-Crews, she was a single mother to then 6-month-old Naomi, and he later adopted her.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
