Emily Willis’ family has reached a $3 million settlement with a rehab facility after the porn star suffered a catastrophic brain injury while undergoing treatment for ketamine addiction.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Willis (real name Litzy Lara Banuelos) is expected to receive approximately $1.25 million from the Malibu Lighthouse Treatment facility after attorneys’ fees and liens. Willis’ mom and legal guardian, Yesenia Cooper — who filed the lawsuit — will continue to serve as her daughter’s conservator due to Willis being “incapacitated.”
As part of the settlement, the Malibu facility denied any wrongdoing and did not admit liability, per the outlet.
Willis, now 27, checked into the treatment center in January 2024 for ketamine addiction. According to her family, Willis was taking five to six grams of ketamine a day. After checking into the facility, Willis’ health allegedly declined. The lawsuit claimed that Willis was left frail, disoriented, dehydrated, and unable to properly walk, eat or care for herself.
One month later, Willis was found unconscious after suffering cardiac arrest at the facility. Paramedics performed CPR for 30 to 40 minutes before her heartbeat was restored. She suffered from brain damage following the incident. An early toxicology report found no drugs in Willis’ system at the time, per the outlet.
Following the incident, Cooper sued Malibu Lighthouse Treatment. Cooper alleged that Willis was left permanently disabled and in a vegetative state during her treatment there. The family also claimed that the prolonged lack of oxygen from Willis’ cardiac arrest incident caused irreversible brain damage.
Prior to the settlement, her family’s attorney, James A. Morris, detailed her condition in a court declaration submitted earlier this year.
Willis “cannot move her body” and lives with an “anoxic brain injury from which she will never recover,” he stated in the docs.
“She is effectively frozen,” Morris added. “She does sometimes open her eyes, but her eyes do not always track movement in the room. She does sometimes grunt.”
Us has reached out to Malibu Lighthouse Treatment for comment.
Before Willis sought treatment for addiction, she was an adult entertainment actress. Willis started her porn career in 2017. Two years later, she was named Penthouse Pet of the Month.
“While I had been doing sales in the summertime in L.A. — they call it ‘seasons’ and send you to different states to sell locally — I had met an amateur [porn] producer on Tinder who I shot for a couple times,” she said of starting her porn career in a 2021 interview with XBIZ. “Then, when I moved back home to Utah, I realized I really loved doing that. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to do porn seriously, since once it’s out there, it’s there forever.”
Willis starred in more than 700 adult films. She also won multiple AVN Awards, which are often referred to as the Oscars for porn.
In 2022, Willis started venturing into acting projects outside of the adult entertainment industry. She had a role in the 2022 thriller Divinity, which also starred Stephen Dorff, Moises Arias, Karrueche Tran, Scott Bakula, Bella Thorne and more.
