Seventeen Years Later, Tera Patrick Rises Again… Kinda.

The mother of legendary burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee once told her, “Make them beg for more — and then don’t give it to them.” These seem like the perfect words to describe the exotic style of sexual dynamo Tera Patrick.

More than a decade has passed since the seductress retired from hard-core films, and not a day has passed without our inbox being filled with requests to feature our 2002 Pet of the Year Runner-Up in these pages once again.

We had all but given up hope of this happening, but then, by stroke of fate, Tera flew to L.A. and paid us a visit. While reminiscing over a wild Penthouse shoot in Costa Rica, the self-appointed “mom-preneur” began feeling frisky and decided to bare it all for our cameras one last time. And I think we can all agree that Tera has never looked sexier.

After the steamy shoot, I sat down with this modern-day Gypsy Rose Lee to discuss her departure from porn, life in Italy (where she now resides), her thoughts on U.S. politics, hot-tubbing with Tom Hanks, and everything in between.

(And, Tera, from all your fans around the globe: Thank you!)

Let me begin by thanking you for this pictorial. We realize you don’t do nude shoots anymore and we’re honored that you’d get undressed for us once again.

I always try to mentor and steer women in the industry in the right direction, and that’s why I decided to do this shoot. Penthouse was a huge accomplishment and milestone in my career. I was so happy to do this shoot, because as a 40-year-old woman who was a Pet for the first time in 2000, it was important to show you can still come back and do something this amazing. I hope it’s inspiring and a positive thing for women. Not to sound arrogant but we often forget how much we can influence someone starting out, in any industry, by making these statements. So many girls have said to me, “You made the industry look good to me. That’s why I wanted to join.” I think that’s wonderful because porn is great. The industry has been good to me, Penthouse has been amazing to me, and I still love that I’m welcomed and embraced.

A big question I always have for girls that retire or leave the business — do you feel sexually fulfilled? Do you long for any of the circus sex or threesomes?

Oh no, I’m a dragon lady. I don’t share my toys or anything; I’m terrible. In 2003, when I was leaving porn, I considered it a phase in my life when I was really open to all that sexual freedom and fun. As I got older, I really wanted a family and stability and intimacy. When I started in the business I was 23. At 30, when I retired, it just started to become old. I had all the threesomes on-screen and in my private life; it wasn’t about finding someone to keep doing that with me. I wanted intimacy. That was the one thing I felt was lacking in my life. I wanted to connect with someone and that’s what made me drink. I was lonely. That’s one reason for the move to Italy; no one would know me and the dating scene would be different. I’d have a clean slate in a way.

Having found that intimacy with your new Italian husband, what is your turn-on now?

I’m very much a voyeur. I love to watch people have sex. When we were last in Amsterdam, I was eating a cheese sandwich and drinking wine watching a couple in a threesome in the Red Light District, and I remember contemplating for a second going in and joining them because watching was such a turn-on. My love life has just gone crazy and skyrocketed with my husband, and we have a lot of anal sex. That is something he’s really into and I had only done once on film and hated it because I couldn’t relax or get into it. Also, my last two relationships they neglected my tits completely, whereas my husband sees them as hours of fun and has made me come just from playing with my tits. He even made me squirt, and I’m not a squirter. I remember the first time we were together, he put two of his fingers in my butt and I started laughing. He said, “No? You don’t like it?” I said, “I like it, but I love that you are so brave to try that right away. Are you trying to do everything to me in this one shot because you think you’re never going to see me again?” He laughed and said yes, he was going to try every hole and move that night.

The woman you are today, in my opinion, is the most gorgeous version of Tera Patrick ever. Your transformation from young girl to mature woman has been well-documented over the past two decades. What are your thoughts when you see old photos of yourself?

What comes to mind when I see photos of my past is that I was really unhealthy back then. When you get older you learn to take better care of yourself. You don’t go to White Castle, you don’t drink cheap alcohol. I’ve had my teeth and my boobs done; I’ve had no work done anywhere else. I had my boobs done when I was Pet of the Year Runner-Up. I had gone through three weeks of super-hard training and I lost my natural 36D boobs because my body fat was so low. I told myself after that I was never going to go through that ever again. I’ve remained pretty thin after having my daughter, just because I eat better. I don’t even really work out.

Although you haven’t done scenes in more than a decade, if you could film a private scene just for your husband what would it be like?

It’s funny, but for his birthday I had secretly recorded me sucking his cock and us doing different acts, and I surprised him with that. He was really excited  because he really likes deep-throating, so I made sure I got a lot of shots like that, with my eyes tearing and watering, a lot of spit and drool. I do webcam shows, and the thing that really keeps me going and indulges my curiosities are the fetishes. I think porn in my era was very Christian-like — there was not much anal and now they’re doing five triple anal backflips in a week. I actually have a priest that comes on with me every week like clockwork, and I’ve made him come on his crucifix and lick it; I’ve had him put his rosary up his ass — he’s really depraved. He came in a yogurt container and ate it. He’s always in full priest uniform, asking me if I want him to wipe his ass with his cloak. My husband wants to watch me on cam, because when is he ever going to get to see a priest do all this stuff? I really look at everyone I see on the street now and I feel like I know their fetish.

Through camming, have you unearthed a fetish of your own?

I’ve always been into choking and being restrained with rope. I’m personally not so romantic; I like the more dominant, physical side. We also have a lot of outdoor sex. My husband always gets real excited when I say, “Let’s go hiking.”

You’re dancing, camming, running a family, newly married. Do you have time for anything else?

I shot a mainstream movie in Virginia Beach, called Madhouse Mecca, that’s going to premiere at the Venice Film Festival and I’m writing a Thai cookbook. I love to cook.

Speaking of mainstream films, is it true you turned down a role opposite Tom Hanks?

Yeah, I was really bummed because they wanted me to sit in a hot tub with him topless, and I thought, This is fucking stupid. I would want to have some dialogue with this incredible actor. I said, “You can hire any chick to do that. I can offer a lot more,” and they said, “But you’ll be sitting with Tom Hanks,” to which I responded, “Yeah, with my tits out. That doesn’t do anything for me.” It was for Charlie Wilson’s War. I thought it would be more interesting to show him having a serious conversation with a topless girl, who you think is stupid only on first glance — especially since I love politics.

That’s a topic I wanted to touch on with you. You are an American now living in the misogynistic country of Italy during the mostly openly misogynistic time in U.S. politics. What is the perception of America and Americans that you’ve experienced over there?

Italy had Berlusconi for years. Trump and Berlusconi — talk about a couple of misogynists. I’m living in a country where everything hides behind the Catholic church. They’re still very racist over here. I think I’m the only Thai person in Italy, and would you believe they try to talk to me in Chinese? “Oh, they’re the same thing,” they tell me. No. No, they’re not. Fascism is alive and well over here. The men very much like Trump. A lot of these Eastern European countries like Albania, Romania, Croatia — men from these places I’ve met in Italy — to them, Trump is a great thing because he’s a man that appeals to their misogynistic ideals. It doesn’t matter that they are still poor and destitute, that their banking has collapsed, he’s making America great. They ask me if Trump is really going to make everything gold and I’m like, “What are you talking about?” They say, “You know, all those gold hotels he has.” Vegas is like this wonderful oasis to them. They only know what they see on TV. Italians are always asking me, “Why would you move here when America is so great?”

What’s your personal view of what’s happening stateside?

One of the things that I would like to see make it over to America that does really well in Italy is the health care. If you’re paying 35 percent for taxes, which is what I was paying, why can’t women have at least six months of maternity leave, or men, depending on who is financially responsible for their household? Why can we not pay in for health care? Why can we not educate and treat our people?

My view is that people just think Trump is going to bring money in; people are obsessed with money and material things. That was a big reason for me leaving: Americans are very focused on their career, their money, and living a better life by material standards. To some people, having a better life is having a new car, a beautiful house, and business status. For me, having had that, living the good life now is drinking a glass of wine at three in the afternoon, working a six-hour day instead of 16, 18, 20 hours, and then picking my daughter up from school, taking her to the park, and enjoying my weekends without thinking about work. I think it’s important to stop and see what’s around us and try and enjoy it. Life is a bit slower here.

What made you choose Italy?

There was an agency here that approached me to start doing striptease shows in Italy a little over two years ago. I came for a month and then I stayed for two extra weeks to go all around Europe. I remember when it was time to leave I felt really sad. That’s when I knew I wanted to try it. I thought if I don’t like it I can always move back to the States, but if things go the way I think they’re going to go in America, I can always stay in Italy.

I wanted to live in a part of the world where I could show my daughter history and art and music and culture. I grew up really, really poor. My father is from England, my mother from Thailand. My mom was selling flowers in the Bangkok flower market at age nine. She has never not known hard labor. When I started making money in the adult industry, it was hard for me to enjoy it because I was really scared of losing it all. Once I became comfortable it made me uncomfortable — that’s when I said we’re packing our bags and living in another country. I wanted my daughter to be bilingual; she speaks Italian, Spanish, and English. In the United States today, we’re teaching our kids to be so reliant on technology for communication. They don’t even teach handwriting anymore; they teach on iPads. The most important thing to me was for her to have a more enriched life.

Is there anything you miss about working in porn?

The traveling is what I loved most about the porn industry. I’ve been to 80 countries since 1999. I would get off the plane and my pussy would be in New Zealand. To me it was so cool that people in New Zealand had seen my pussy! I remember being in Costa Rica to film Pets in Paradise. That was a really fun trip, one that ended wildly. We didn’t know it but we were shooting on an active volcano. The photographer was backing up to get the shot, and his leg slipped into molten lava. They had to airlift him to San Jose. Nick Guccione, Bob’s son, finished the shoot with his wife, Nikki. Five hours after the accident, we arrived back at the hotel and I went to check on the photographer. I asked him if he needed a nurse, since I have a degree in microbiology and I used to work as a nurse. He was like, “Yeah, I totally need a nurse!” So, I start seducing him and I get on top of him. I told him I was really horny and I was going to give him the best night of his life and then his brother, who was there as his assistant, walks in. I was like, “Hey! Come over here and join us.” The photographer was like, “No, no, no! He can’t join us!” The photographer lost his hard-on when his brother came in, so his brother came and he didn’t. I remember the next morning at breakfast I was like, “Good morning, everyone!” The brother was all excited and said good morning and the burned photographer was really mad and didn’t talk to us the rest of the trip.