According to Khalifa, as cited by The Daily Beast, her experience in the adult industry lasted just three months, and she filmed only 12 scenes, earning her a grand total of $12,000 despite her status as the No. 1 star on Pornhub.
"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.
Khalifa also explained why she chose to leave the industry at the height of her fame and spoke about the stigma that’s followed her since.
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"Of course I’m still ashamed of it. 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 ... people are still ashamed of that fact because it’s stigmatized, so their immediate reaction is going to be scrutiny instead of sympathy. But it completely baffles me", Khalifa stressed.
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The famous former adult actress also revealed how her own insecurities led her to the world of the porn industry.
"I was approached at a very vulnerable point in my life. I was handed a business card, thought about it for a few weeks, went in and was showered with compliments — felt validated for a whole twenty minutes — and I went back and shot a scene, and it was terrifying ... It was more like, wow, this is so surreal that I can’t even comprehend what was happening ... Afterwards, I would say there was a little bit of regret, a little bit of shame — though the shame didn’t fully set in until a couple of months after that. But I think what made me go back and do it again was that the attention I was receiving, I was afraid it would go away if I didn’t do what I was asked to do", she said.
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Khalifa was also reportedly at the centre of controversy after she appeared in an adult scene dressed in hijab. She was slammed by the Lebanese and Middle Eastern media, and even received death threats online, including from alleged Daesh terrorists.
"I will say that it’s still satire. It’s still parody. It’s still a video to not be taken seriously ... I had geolocation turned on on Twitter ... So, someone screenshotted it and sent me a threat saying, 'I know where you live'", Khalifa recalled, adding that "it was pretty terrifying. I mean, obviously, it was some stupid sympathizer who just wanted to scare me. I knew it wasn’t the head of ISIS [Daesh] standing on top of a mountain trying to get some data".
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According to Khalifa, her fame as porn actress has been a burden for her, as she said that "seventy percent of interactions of people coming up" to her are men, who are usually "asking for a photo, trying to touch me or trying to speak to me in a way that’s disrespectful".
Currently, Khalifa is involved in several online startups that have nothing to do with the adult industry, including a sports app for football referees and a mobile dating service, according to The Daily Beast.
*Daesh (ISIS, ISIL, IS, Islamic State) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.
