Dio Cassius, in a more detailed account, writes that Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea and that Nero called Sporus by her name. Some think Nero used his marriage to Sporus to assuage the guilt he felt for kicking his pregnant wife Poppaea to death. Suetonius places his account of the Nero–Sporus relationship in his scandalous accounts of Nero's sexual aberrations, between his raping a Vestal Virgin and committing incest with his mother. Suetonius quotes one Roman who lived around this time who remarked that the world would have been better off if Nero's father Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had married someone more like the castrated boy. Among other forms of address, Sporus was termed 'Lady', 'Empress', and 'Mistress'. Nero had earlier married another freedman, Pythagoras, who had played the role of Nero's husband now Sporus played the role of Nero's wife. He then took Sporus to Greece and back to Rome, making Calvia Crispinilla serve as ' mistress of the wardrobe' to Sporus, epitropeia ten peri estheta.

Nero had Sporus castrated, and during their marriage, Nero had Sporus appear in public as his wife wearing the regalia that was customary for Roman empresses. Later that year or in 67, he married Sporus, who was said to bear a remarkable resemblance to Poppaea. At the beginning of 66, Nero married Statilia Messalina. This was supposedly in childbirth, although it was later rumored Nero kicked her to death. Nero's wife, Poppaea Sabina, died in 65 AD.

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