The Terrifying Incident That Changed Mia Khalifa's Life Forever

Former adult entertainment star, Mia Khalifa, has been speaking out about the negative effects the porn industry has had on her life since she left the industry in 2015. Even though she only actually filmed for three months in 2014, the controversy surrounding Khalifa's videos made her remain popular on adult video websites, despite her leaving the industry's toxicity behind her. These videos would go on to haunt her, and she even received death threats for her participation, per CNN.

These days, Khalifa is building a presence on social media, gaining more fans that are sympathetic to what she went through. Hindsight is truly 20/20, and now people are beginning to see how Khalifa was taken advantage of and preyed on by people in the porn industry. After being mistreated, mocked, and hated by the public for years, Khalifa is telling her side of the story.

With that in mind, a recent interview with Khalifa is gaining attention, as her experiences online directly impacted her mistreatment in real life. 

Mia Khalifa opened up to Bustle about the challenges that entered her life after becoming one of the most hated, yet desired (she was once "PornHub's #1 ranked performer") people in the world. One of her friends, model Jenna Lee, recounted one scary experience she witnessed, where some men decided to put their hands on Khalifa to get her away from her group of friends at a 2017 concert.

"[Khalifa] ended up literally having to punch a guy to get away. She really changed after that. [Living in fear,] Mia couldn't be nice to anyone in public," Lee recalled. "I saw the public get to her." In fact, Khalifa "couldn't go to the grocery store without being harassed."

And it's true, we didn't really hear from Khalifa until her eye-opening interview with BBC News in 2019, where she spoke about the struggles she experienced after leaving the porn industry and how she was exploited. The interview has now garnered over 15 million views as of this writing, and it was a large part of Khalifa's comeback to the public. Now, Khalifa has over 27 million followers on Instagram, and 32 million on TikTok. With her new and more supportive social media following, Khalifa has taken control of her image and worked hard to speak out against injustice towards women.