legal victory

Muscle daddy professor wins case against university that fired him for his gay adult film past

Ruggero Freddi shirtless on the beach

A muscle-daddy Italian engineering professor has successfully sued a university for firing him after discovering that he was a gay adult star.

Ruggero Freddi (better known by his performer name Carlo Masi) said that his workplace at the Sapienza University of Rome became hostile leading up to his 2019 dismissal which, he says, occurred without explanation.

Freddi obtained two degrees from the university — one in math and one in engineering — before he began his doctoral research and faculty professorship there in 2017. That same year, his students discovered his past work in gay adult film with Colt Studios in California. Though he retired from performing in 2013, he proudly admitted his past video work while the story went viral worldwide.

Soon after, however, he said that the university canceled his planned extracurricular activities with no explanation. This included an educational presentation on HIV to students, GCN reported.

“I felt like there were prejudices around me, which were beyond my skills as a teacher and as a data analyst, the role I occupy today,” he said.

In 2019, he said the university offered him a position teaching math. But after he worked 60 hours of the expected 100-hour job, he said the university fired him without explanation and refused to pay him for the hours he worked.

He filed a lawsuit in Rome’s civil court and, on January 24, a judge ruled in his favor, requiring the university to pay him €2,500 ($2,635) for his unpaid hours and a fine of €1,500 ($1,581) for “unjustified dismissal.”

In a statement issued after the ruling, Freddi said, “I was forced to sue. And I won. I hope my case gives courage to all PhD students who are exploited after years of studies and specializations.“

He added that he now has a “normal job” that pays out a regular salary.

In 2018, Freddi married Gustavo Leguizamon, a fellow adult performer who he met on set during Leguizamon’s first-ever adult film shoot. Freddi didn’t perform with Leguizamon in that scene, but the two became friends. Later, Freddi asked a producer to create a scene so the two of them could get it on in front of the camera.

“The night before we shot the scene together, we slept together and fell in love,” Freddi said. Then, 12 years later, the two married at the Villa Miani in Rome.

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