My Take

Linda Lovelace: The Star of 'Deep Throat' Who Spent Her Life Telling a Different Story

A Catholic schoolgirl from the Bronx, the most profitable adult film ever made, 33 publishers who said no, and a woman who said she finally knew she had survived.

By Maximo Garcia · October 30, 2026

Editor’s note: This story involves allegations of abuse and coercion. We describe them as she did and as other parties disputed them, without explicit detail.

Key facts

Who was Linda Lovelace?

Linda Lovelace was the stage name of Linda Susan Boreman, star of Deep Throat (1972). The Guardian called it “probably the most controversial – and profitable – film of all time” (The Guardian, 2022). For a few years she was the most famous adult performer in the world. She spent the rest of her life saying the film wasn’t what it seemed, and that she hadn’t chosen it.

“Miss Holy Holy”

Boreman was born in the Bronx into a working-class family. Her father was a New York City police officer who was seldom home, and she described her mother as harsh and domineering (Wikipedia). She went to Catholic schools, including Maria Regina High School, and Wikipedia says classmates called her “Miss Holy Holy” because she kept dates at a distance. When she was 16, the family moved to Davie, Florida (Wikipedia).

A serious car crash in her early 20s changed her life twice over. She needed a blood transfusion, and the blood hadn’t been properly screened for hepatitis. That led to a liver transplant years later, in 1987 (Wikipedia).

Chuck Traynor and Deep Throat

While recovering at her parents’ home, she met Chuck Traynor. According to her, he was charming at first, then violent and controlling. He became her manager and her husband (Wikipedia). She would later allege that he forced her into adult work. In her divorce case she alleged he coerced her “by pointing a rifle at her head” (Wikipedia). Traynor admitted to striking her but claimed it was consensual. Some people from the industry questioned her credibility, while others said they saw abuse (Wikipedia).

Deep Throat premiered in New York in June 1972. It became a mainstream phenomenon, the “porno chic” moment. The Guardian reports it drew celebrity audiences and provoked “a fierce backlash from an unlikely alliance of feminists and religious groups,” FBI scrutiny and years of obscenity trials (The Guardian, 2022). Director Gerard Damiano shot it in six days for $25,000. A 1975 New York Times investigation, as recounted by The Guardian, found the mafia helped bankroll and profit from it (The Guardian, 2022).

The Los Angeles Times summarized what she later said about the money: “Boreman said that she was never paid a penny for ‘Deep Throat’ and that her husband was paid only $1,250, although the film grossed a reported $600 million” (Los Angeles Times).

Ordeal: the book nobody wanted

She left Traynor in the mid-1970s. In 1976 she married Larry Marchiano, a cable installer, and had two children (Wikipedia). Then she wrote the account that redefined her.

Her first two “autobiographies,” from the 1970s, were titillating fiction. Both she and Traynor said he wrote the first (The Guardian, 2013). Ordeal (1980) told a much darker story, and publishing it was a fight:

“She tried 33 publishers before she found one who would accept it, and they obliged her … to pass an extensive lie-detector test on its contents. She stuck by its claims for the rest of her life.”

— The Guardian, 2013 (source)

The Guardian’s historian-critic concluded that this makes Ordeal “substantially more credible as a piece of historical evidence than the first two books.” Her own summary of Deep Throat was that it was “at once a low point and a salvation,” because fame eventually gave her a way out (The Guardian, 2013).

Testifying

After Ordeal she joined the anti-pornography movement and appeared alongside Gloria Steinem, Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon (Wikipedia). In 1986 she testified before the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, the “Meese Commission,” in New York:

“When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped. It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time.”

— Linda Boreman, testimony to the Meese Commission, 1986, as quoted by Wikipedia (source)

Her relationship with the movement got complicated. The Guardian notes she “later complained that some feminists used her for their own gain,” though she stayed friendly with Dworkin and MacKinnon (The Guardian, 2013). By 2001, Wikipedia says, she had moderated her views and said she had received little financial support (Wikipedia).

“I know that I’ve survived”

The family moved to Colorado in 1990. She and Marchiano divorced in 1996 after 22 years but stayed close (Los Angeles Times). On April 3, 2002, she was badly hurt in another car crash, and she died on April 22 at Denver Health Medical Center with Marchiano and their two grown children there (Los Angeles Times).

“Everyone might know her as something else, but we knew her as Mom and as Linda. We divorced five years ago, but she was still my best friend.”

— Larry Marchiano to the Los Angeles Times (source)

The Times closed with her own words from a 1997 interview: “I’m not ashamed of my past or sad about it… I look in the mirror and I know that I’ve survived” (Los Angeles Times). Her story was told again in the 2013 biopic Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried (The Guardian, 2013).

My Take (opinion — Maximo Garcia)

I work in this industry and I’m proud of the people I work with. That’s exactly why Linda’s story matters to me. The difference between a job and abuse is consent: real consent, freely given, that you can take back at any moment. And getting paid. Her husband got $1,250, she got nothing, and the film made a fortune.

Not everyone agrees on every detail, and her own story changed over her life. That’s often what surviving abuse looks like. What isn’t in dispute is that no one on that set made sure she was safe, free and paid. On every set I’m on, those three things come first. More from me at maximogarciaworld.com.

Related: Traci Lords, another survivor whose case changed industry rules, and Nina Hartley, who argued the other side of the feminist debate that Linda’s testimony helped start.

FAQ

What was Linda Lovelace’s real name?

Linda Susan Boreman (Wikipedia).

What is Ordeal?

Her 1980 memoir alleging coercion by Chuck Traynor (The Guardian).

How much was Linda Lovelace paid for Deep Throat?

By her account, nothing. Her husband got $1,250 (Los Angeles Times).

How did Linda Lovelace die?

She died after a 2002 car crash in Colorado, aged 53 (Los Angeles Times).

How we fact-checked this

Every fact and quote was checked against the sources below. Allegations against Chuck Traynor are attributed to her and her book, and his denials and other accounts are noted. We deliberately left out explicit detail.

Sources

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