Mia Khalifa says she was pressured to get into adult entertainment industry by her ex-husband

Mia Khalifa has opened up about the pressure she faced to get into the adult entertainment industry while she was with her ex-husband.

Appearing on an episode of Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast in May 2023, she revealed that her “abusive” relationship while she was in her late teens was one of the reasons she got into porn.

The 31-year-old, who now goes by her real name Sarah Joe Chamoun, said that she was in an “extremely abusive” relationship with someone who was “grooming” her, adding that it reflected one “a lot of girls get into when they’re in their late teens.”

“I got talked into eloping to Las Vegas four days after my 18th birthday,” she told the host. “I didn’t have a sense of self so I attached myself to someone who was more than happy to abuse that and someone who could see that and see someone easily manipulatable… but at the same time eager to please. It was just the perfect storm.”

She opened up about how she ended up in the adult industry at just 18. Credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images for MAINS

However, things seemed to take an even darker turn when her husband, who was in the US Army at the time, presented the adult entertainment industry to her.

“[He] put that whole [porn] world in front of me and encouraged it,” she said before also adding that she prefers not to refer to it as a “relationship.”

“I even feel weird calling it a relationship, because the dynamic was not one of a relationship – it was more one of someone who saw a toy to play with,” she said.

At only 20 years old, the former performer was handed a card by a porn scout, which led her to start a short, but highly impactful, career in the industry.

The actress quickly rose to stardom after participating in a highly controversial sex scene in which she was seen wearing a hijab while performing sexual acts alongside Sean Lawless and Julianna Vega. The film ended up going viral and as a result of sexualizing the religious head garment, Chamoun was subjected to intense backlash, which included death threats from ISIS.

It also made the 31-year-old one of the most searched-for porn stars in the world at the time.

Speaking of the backlash on an episode of BBC’s HARDtalk, Chamoun opened up about how her controversial career affected her future relationships with partners and with her own family.

“I shocked even myself,” she told the interviewer, Stephen Sackur, who then proceeded to ask her whether her family had any idea what she was doing when she first started.

“No… And they disowned me when they found out.”

Her family disowned her when they found out about her job. Credit: Greg Doherty/Getty Images

She continued: “I felt completely alienated by not just the world, but my family and the people around me. Especially after I quit, when I was still alone, even though I left. And I just realized some mistakes aren’t forgivable.

“But time heals all wounds, and things are getting better now,” she added.