Did you know that despite being one of the most popular adult film stars in the world,
Mia Khalifa's career in pornography lasted only three months?
Curious to know how she feels about the industry these days?
Keep watching.
Mia Khalifa, whose real name is Sarah Joe Chamoun, was born in Lebanon to a Catholic
family.
Her parents were "very conservative" and raised her in a strict environment.
She attended a French-language private school, where she learned to speak other languages,
including English.
There wasn't much about her upbringing that suggested she might one day become the number
1 adult film star in the world.
There are plenty of reasons people turn to the adult entertainment industry, but Khalifa's
early upbringing wasn't much of a factor.
That's not to say it wasn't chaotic, because she and her family left their native Lebanon
in 2001 when she was 8 or 9 years old.
This was at the tail end of the South Lebanon conflict, but just before the September 11
attacks.
The family relocated to Montgomery County, Maryland.
Khalifa revealed in an interview with Playboy that she was often bullied, saying:
"I was the darkest and weirdest girl there."
High school was difficult for Khalifa: she was teased for being overweight and had low
self-esteem.
She experienced a lot of racism in school due to her skin color, which many people associated
with the 9/11 terrorists.
"So I was immediately the terrorist, and that was my nickname all through high school."
“People would call you—”
On top of that, she didn't have many friends, which made her feel isolated, but she made
her way through and eventually finished high school and college.
Then, in 2013, she was approached about doing some modeling, and her life was never the
same.
According to Mia Khalifa, her road to the adult film industry was paved with low self-esteem.
Khalifa told The Daily Beast:
"I was overweight, and I didn't really have very many friends.
I didn't look like everyone else who was around me, and that led me into a relationship that
I should not have entered.
And those were the steps that led me to the adult industry."
Khalifa explained how she started working in the industry, telling The Daily Beast,
"I was handed a business card, thought about it for a few weeks, went in and was showered
with compliments [...] it was terrifying and temporarily validating, but afterward, I felt
a little empty.
Though I still had that pit in my stomach where I wanted to chase that validation again."
She also described how she never got attention from the opposite sex when she was younger.
"I struggled my entire childhood with weight.
And I never felt attractive or worthy of male attention."
Khalifa attributed this to her being overweight, but even after losing 50 pounds in college
and getting breast augmentation surgery, she still had problems with her self-esteem.
Khalifa left it up to men to provide the validation she sought, and filming scenes helped her
in that way.
If there's one thing the adult film industry isn't lacking, it's content.
There are so many videos shot, edited, and uploaded every day from across the world that
it's impossible to count them, so it makes sense that Mia Khalifa thought her videos
wouldn't be noticed.
She went into detail during an appearance on "The Forward with Lance Armstrong":
"The way I rationalized it was, there is so much porn out there that there is no way that
anyone is ever gonna see me."
To ensure nobody saw her videos, she didn't promote them in any way.
Typically, this is not how people working in the adult entertainment industry handle
their online persona.
It's normal to post videos and pictures all over social media to drum up publicity.
Khalifa was adamantly opposed to doing this and truly wanted to ensure nobody connected
her to the videos she was shooting.
To accomplish this, she didn't have a single social media account associated with her porn
persona.
Ultimately, none of her efforts to remain anonymous worked, and before long, she shot
to international superstardom-slash-infamy.
When that happened, she tried to embrace the identity she had created.
Still, her actions suggested she wasn't okay with what was happening.
In the end, her popularity pushed her to get out of the industry, as she found herself
doing something she didn't want to do with her life.
While Mia Khalifa knew people would see the videos, she hoped nobody who knew her would
connect "Mia Khalifa" to Sarah Joe Chamoun, a young immigrant woman fresh out of college.
Unfortunately for Khalifa, the reality of the 21st century is that very little remains
unsolved, and it didn't take long for the people in her life to learn about her new
vocation.
She was terrified that her parents would find out, and they did.
Almost immediately after her second video went live online, her parents learned what
she was doing and publicly disowned her — by issuing a statement, which read, in part:
"We are probably paying the price for living away from our homeland; our kids had to adapt
to societies that don’t resemble our culture, traditions and values."
It didn't take long for Khalifa to become the center of attention, and with her parents
disowning her, her life was turned upside-down.
At first, she tried to embrace her newly chosen profession by opening up social media accounts
and signing on for more work.
Still, it wasn't long before Khalifa was looking for an exit from the adult film industry.
Her popularity and all of the problems she experienced resulted from a single video she
now regrets filming.
"I think a part of it was also rebellion.
And wanting to do something so out of bounds and so out of character that I shocked even
myself."
Mia Khalifa's first pornographic video wasn't a standout in any noticeable way.
She was paired with a gentleman named Carlos, and the two did...
what people do in those videos.
It was uploaded to Scoreland on October 17, 2014, but it didn't draw any attention Khalifa's
way.
After all, there are thousands of videos just like it, and that's what Khalifa was counting
on.
Her video for Bang Bros, on the other hand, was very different.
She and another female actor, playing her stepmom, were shown wearing headscarves, fashioning
them as hijabs.
They performed with a Caucasian male actor named Sean Lawless, and the video almost immediately
went viral.
The fact that the two women were wearing headscarves, denoting them as Islamic or from an Islamic
culture, made international news headlines.
It didn't take long for people around the world to notice, and "Mia Khalifa" was suddenly
a household name.
By December 28, 2014, her name was the number 1 search term on PornHub.
The website tweeted the news, which Khalifa responded to via her Twitter account.
That account eventually went dark, but Khalifa embraced her sudden shot to superstardom for
a little while.
The positive attention was initially welcome, but it almost immediately became hostile,
as outlets across the world, some of which were in Lebanon, picked up her story.
An article in the Lebanese Examiner wrote:
"Lebanese natives are upset and offended by [Mia Khalifa's] work."
Mia Khalifa didn't remain in the adult entertainment industry for very long.
In interviews, she's revealed that her career only lasted three months.
According to Playboy, she shot 21 films during that time, although there is some dispute
over the total number — Khalifa explained to Lance Armstrong that many scenes were re-uploaded
with different cuts.
While working in adult films helped her low self-esteem in the beginning, it wasn't as
validating as she initially hoped.
Despite an initial embrace of her fame, it didn't take long for Khalifa to decide that
pornography wasn't for her.
She wasn't interested in pursuing a career in the business, so she decided to walk away
from it all.
Outside of her dislike for her popularity, Khalifa was also receiving death threats.
In the end, the numerous death threats pushed her to walk away from a potentially lucrative
career.
Only two weeks after she signed a long-term contract with Bang Bros' parent company, she
walked in and handed over her letter of resignation.
It's one thing to receive random death threats from people halfway around the world; it's
something else entirely when it involves an infamous paramilitary organization.
Soon after she became the most-searched-for actor on PornHub, the death threats began
rolling in, and many of them were from supporters of ISIS, the Islamic State.
It wasn't just threatening words coming into Khalifa's inbox — many of the threats came
with pictures.
One such image depicted Khalifa held by an ISIS executioner with text warning that she
would be "the first person in Hellfire."
Khalifa brushed this kind of thing off for a while and even replied, tweeting,
"I've been meaning to get a little tan recently."
Her lighthearted response to her threatened execution masked what was really going on
inside — she was terrified.
Her whole world had turned upside-down, as she had no intention of capitalizing on her
sudden fame.
Most of the threats were made publicly on social media platforms.
Many called for her beheading.
At the same time, articles were being published about her in Lebanon, most of which criticized
her for having tattoos that referenced her native country.
Still, the threats did a number on Khalifa.
"My instagram account got hacked by ISIS and they started pushing propaganda on it and
then Instagram shut it down."
Khalifa told BBC Radio 5 Live that things got so bad at one point, someone tweeted a
Google screenshot of her apartment along with a death threat.
One of the biggest issues Mia Khalifa has regarding her time in the adult film industry
is that she's lost control over her own image.
When she signed her first contract to film a scene, she was 21 years old.
She had no understanding of the legal ramifications carried by her signature.
Since leaving the industry, she's spoken out about the "predatory business practices" in
the industry.
What she didn't understand at the time was that she was signing away her image.
Anything shot that first day didn't belong to her, and she had no right to remove it
later, which is what she tried to do.
Metro revealed that she's fought to remove content depicting her.
Still, as many people already know, it's next to impossible to "erase" anything from the
Internet.
Once it's out there, it's there for life, and this has become a significant problem
for Khalifa.
The only success she's had in removing content using her image has been with uploaded cuts
or edited compilations.
Those items are removable via what's called "Internet Cleanup."
Still, there are thousands of Khalifa's videos online, and it's not financially feasible
to target all of them.
A Change.org petition was started in 2020 on her behalf, indicating fans support Khalifa's
desire to remove her content from the Internet.
As of March 2022, there are more than 1.8 million signatures.
Although Khalifa has worked hard to change her post-porn image, she has also been forced
to accept that her work isn't going anywhere.
Like many performers who entered the adult film industry at a young age, Mia Khalifa
isn't proud of her past.
It took her a long time to open up publicly about her feelings concerning her short career
in the business, and one word stuck out more than any other: shame.
In multiple interviews, Khalifa has described how she felt taken advantage of and how she
felt shame for the work she'd done.
When asked how she felt after filming her scenes, she described feeling like she was
in a blackout, telling The Daily Beast:
"[I]t was more like, wow, this is so surreal that I can't even comprehend what was happening.
And even now, when I look back on it, it's sort of just a blur in my memory."
She had only a "gist" of what she'd done in her head, and the experiences left her feeling
regret.
The shame didn't set in right away, though.
Khalifa discussed how it didn't manifest until a couple months later.
She continued working in the industry because she liked the attention she was getting on
the set of her shoots, but she blames her naiveté on having been only 21 when she started.
Mia Khalifa became a household name thanks to a single controversial video.
Still, that's not the only time she's been embroiled in controversy.
Since leaving the industry, she's managed to remain in the spotlight for a number of
reasons, and many of them have brought a lot of negative attention to Khalifa.
In October 2017, Khalifa sparked outrage for posting an image of the Virgin Mary on her
Instagram.
The photoshopped picture shows Khalifa's face on a painting of the Virgin Mary with the
caption,
"When a news outlet mistakes Malala for Mia Khalifa."
The reaction was decidedly negative, and Khalifa took a lot of flack for her post.
Still, she didn't take it down, which points to her unapologetic style of not backing down.
That's a mentality that's remained consistent throughout her adult life.
In another foray into controversial waters, Khalifa came out swinging at the Lebanese
president after the large explosion at the Beirut port in 2020.
She used her Twitter and Instagram accounts to target the president and other politicians
she blamed for the degrading situation in her home country.
Putting herself into the story had two results: it brought attention to the crisis and it
brought a lot of heat down on her.
People called her out for making "it about herself" when she had nothing to do with the
tragedy.
Pornography is one of those jobs that doesn't attract a large portion of the population.
The vast majority of people don't look at the adult film industry as a viable option
for employment, so it's not uncommon to think that the pay is really high.
After all, if someone is willing to perform in front of people on camera, they must be
getting well-compensated, right?
As it happens, that's not necessarily the case.
According to CNBC, the average pay for a female performer is $1,000 per scene.
Of course, the rates fluctuate and have been higher or lower over time.
Still, a grand is a reasonable amount of money a female performer can expect to earn.
Men make around $600 per scene, and that's the industry standard.
Granted, this isn't necessarily common knowledge, so most people assume women like Mia Khalifa
make a lot of money working in the industry.
Fans were shocked when Khalifa revealed that she only earned about $12,000 from her entire
career in the adult film industry.
That amount tracks with the aforementioned rate, and she's mentioned this on several
occasions.
Khalifa could have made more money by working with sites to promote her content, but that
was antithetical to her interests.
Most performers earn royalties and diversify their portfolios to bring in money from various
sources related to their work in the industry.
Still, for anyone taking nothing but direct compensation, the money isn't spectacular,
which Khalifa learned the hard way.
When Mia Khalifa left the adult entertainment industry, she tried her hand at less fringe
work.
She got a job as a paralegal and bookkeeper in Miami but found that she wasn't exactly
welcomed by other staff members.
Numerous looks from people who knew of her past made her feel unwelcome, so she colored
her hair blonde and tried her luck at anonymity, which didn't work.
She also found it difficult to date, which she explained to Playboy, saying,
"I will never find a guy I deem to be perfect or normal since I'm not perfect — and am
nowhere near normal."
"It was very hard for me to date after."
Still, she has been married twice, but neither relationship worked out.
She married her high school sweetheart in 2011, but they separated in 2014.
Their divorce was finalized in 2016, and it's not something she's spoken about publicly.
She married Robert Sandberg at their home in 2020, but, according to The Sun, the couple
delayed their reception due to the COVID pandemic.
In July 2021, Khalifa announced on Instagram that the reception meant for family and friends
had been canceled and that the couple had broken up.
She wrote, in part:
"We can confidently say we gave it our all in making our marriage work, but [...] we
are walking away knowing we have a friend for life in each other, and that we truly
tried.
[...] We are closing this chapter with no regrets and both starting our own, separately."
In November 2021, Khalifa confirmed the rumors that she was dating singer Jhay Cortéz.
Mia Khalifa didn't intend on becoming an international adult film star, but that's what happened
during her three months in the industry.
Since leaving the business, she's bounced around from job to job, trying to settle on
a career.
She has a degree in history but hasn't pursued the kinds of jobs open to someone with those
credentials.
Instead, she worked as a bookkeeper and paralegal, but after those jobs didn't pan out, she embraced
her fame to become a social media personality.
She also did some work as a webcam model, selling photos and videos through FindRow
and Patreon.
Her popularity afforded her a lot of followers, and she parlayed her fame to launch a career
in sports commentary as a podcaster.
She co-hosted "Out of Bounds" with Gilbert Arenas on Complex News' YouTube channel, but
she left after only five months.
Khalifa then co-hosted "Sportsball" with Tyler Coe on RoosterTeeth.com, but that gig didn't
last long either.
Khalifa is a huge sports fan, so she's been making inroads into working in the industry,
but none of her efforts have resulted in long-term employment.
Khalifa jumped on the OnlyFans bandwagon in 2020, where she posts non-pornographic content.
She wrote a thank you message on the site, explaining,
"Even though I will not be creating nude content [...] I want to take my power back and just
post what I want and what makes me feel good."
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