An employee at Taco Bell has claimed she was fired from the franchise for her previous work in the porn industry.
Lonna Wells, 33, was working at a Taco Bell franchise in Newport, Arkansas for less than a week when she found out she was being let go with immediate effect.
She had applied for the job after contracting coronavirus, putting a stop to her usual filming for websites such as PornHub.
Wells was due to arrive at the Taco Bell store within minutes for her shift when she got a phone call from her manager, passing on the news that she was no longer needed.
Talking about the call, Wells said it made her feel “sad” and “upset,” particularly since the manager had not even waited for her to arrive that day to relay the news in-person.
Speaking to a news outlet, Wells said she started “bawling” and was confused about why she had been fired.
She confessed: “They couldn’t have even given me a heads-up or waited until I got there to say something. I just started bawling. I don’t know if it was because I was upset, or I was ticked, or a little bit of both.”
She said she had been “very open” about her previous online sex work and even asked manager April Garcia during an initial interview with Taco Bell whether it would cause any problems.
Garcia reportedly told her that it would not cause any problems, as Wells’s choices about how to spend her time outside work were her “own business.”
She went on to say: “I was very open about it and said, ‘Hey, this is what I do as a job right now, and I’ve been doing it since 2017, is this going to cause any problems?’”
Wells, who has been nominated for two awards for her content, had been filming porn videos since 2017. A statement released by Taco Bell confirms that Wells’s employment with the company has been terminated.
However, according to Taco Bell, she had broken policy and procedures, which led to her being dismissed.
The statement also said people from all backgrounds are welcome into the “Taco Bell family,” implying that Wells’ second job did not play a part in the decision to fire her.
It read: “This former team member worked for a franchise location and the franchisee has informed us that the accusations made are not accurate and that she was instead terminated for violation of their policies and procedures.”
Wells thinks a former co-worker might have been behind the initial complaint.
