Porn Star Mia Khalifa is ready to leave her porn infamy behind

Between fielding death threats for her porn industry work, retribution from her family and home country of Lebanon, and having to prove herself as a die-hard sports fanatic, Khalifa (which is not her real name) tried to hide away from the fame. But after trading in her life in Miami for laid-back vibes in Austin, Texas, Khalifa is not only embracing her online persona, but is completely rebranding herself as a sports commentator and chef, and even has a cookbook in the works.

From her Pornhub fame to talking Washington, D.C., teams, here are the most fascinating facts about Mia Khalifa.

Despite Khalifa’s notoriety performing in adult films while wearing a hijab, a head covering worn by Muslim women, Khalifa comes from a Catholic family, though she’s no longer practicing, according to a 2015 piece with the BCC. Khalifa, who moved to the U.S. at age 10, told the Washington Post in 2015 that was surprised about the negative backlash relating to those scenes.

“The scenes containing a hijabi are satirical. There are Hollywood movies that depict Muslims in a much worse manner than any scene Bang Bros [the company who made the video] could produce,” Khalifa said at the time.

Speaking to cyclist Lance Armstrong on his podcast Forward in February, Khalifa said she didn’t put herself out there as a college student at the University of Texas, El Paso, and was focused on graduating early, all the while losing 50 pounds through exercise.

At age 21, she had her breasts augmented, and immediately afterward, she said her self-esteem was still low. That same year, she was approached to do pornography at a strip mall in Miami. She thought about it for two weeks, but “made the mistake of saying yes and going in,” she told Armstrong.

Khalifa said after her first film, she felt a combination of guilt, shame, and temporary validation.

She told Armstrong the experience was “nerve-wracking,” calling herself “21 and dumb” when she made the decision and saying she now finds herself feeling uncomfortable when she shows too much cleavage in public.

However, at the time, she didn’t think her videos would be easily found online because she didn’t have social media back then.

All Khalifa had wanted to do was let loose and rebel, but the fame was too much. She said the popularity spiraled out of control once she started receiving death threats from ISIS.

“It didn’t validate me. Nothing like that ever does. That’s not what you should be doing to try to build your self-esteem,” Khalifa said.

While she can’t get the original copies of her videos taken down, Khalifa said she has a legal team that cleans up fake accounts that repost content online.

Speaking to Armstrong, Khalifa said she worked as a bookkeeper for a construction firm and as a paralegal in Miami, but she was too recognizable.

After six months, Khalifa stopped trying to downplay her internet fame and decide to move to Austin, where she’s since rebranded herself and attempted to pursue other careers.

In 2015, a reader for website BroBible who said he went to high school with Khalifa sent the publication Khalifa’s yearbook picture. The photo has since been uploaded to Pinterest.

According to Khalifa’s Twitter feed, her parents enrolled her in military school for her sophomore through senior years of high school after they caught her smoking weed. Several of her classmates have uploaded her yearbook photo from during her time there, too

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save