World’s ‘Number One’ Pornography Star Made Less Than $12,000 Throughout Her Whole Career: ‘I’m Ashamed’

Mia Khalifa, 26, said in an interview published this week that despite once being among the world’s most popular pornography stars, throughout her entire career she only made $12,000 – before taxes.

Khalifa, whose wearing of a hijab in one of her early scenes skyrocketed her to stardom and earned her death threats from ISIS, spoke to The Daily Beast about her interview earlier in the month with life coach Megan Abbott.

Her sit-down with Abbott has garnered more than 1.1 million views on YouTube and sparked conversations and criticism regarding the adult industry. Khalifa immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 2001 and her somewhat unconventional route to pornography has fascinated adult industry consumers and onlookers.

According to The Beast, Khalifa was once the “No. 1 star” on PornHub, one of the biggest sites – pornography or otherwise – on the planet. To this day, Khalifa still holds the title of the second-most popular pornography star on the site. And even though she’s since retired from adult film, Khalifa has parlayed her short stint in the industry to massive reach on social media: she has 16. 8 million followers on Instagram, which is 2 million more than President Donald Trump.

Khalifa told The Beast’s Marlow Stern that her decision to be interviewed by Abbott stemmed from her feelings of “shame” about her three-month career as an adult film actress.

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“It’s hard not to be when one decision you made when you were 21 years old entitles the whole world to see you naked, so of course I’m still ashamed of it, and of course I would go back and change things if I could,” Khalifa said.

Stern also asked the social media personality about an attention-grabbing Monday tweet, wherein Khalifa revealed that she’d “made a TOTAL of around $12,000” during her pornography career.

“My takeaway from that is, if that’s their reaction to that number—I’m having my accountant put together the actual number, because $12K was before taxes. So, it’s definitely even less than that. And it was for 12 scenes, so $1,000 a scene,” Khalifa said.

Mia Khalifa, sign of the culture?

Khalifa’s entry into mainstream culture could be said to reflect a weakening of previous societal taboos against pornography.

A 2018 Gallup poll revealed that 43 percent of Americans believe pornography is “morally acceptable,” a significant spike from the previous year and the highest level since Gallup first queried respondents about the topic in 2011.

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The findings square with Gallup’s conclusion that society as a whole is becoming more permissive on moral issues. In a 2017 report, Gallup found that on 10 of 19 moral issues, Americans’ views were more permissive than ever.

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