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Ex-porn star Mia Khalifa sat down for an interview with former seven-time tour de force cyclist Lance Armstrong for an interview and opened up about why she left the adult entertainment industry.
"It all started to spiral out of control when the death threats from ISIS started coming in," she told Armstrong on his podcast, New Forward. "That's when I stepped away."
Khalifa filmed pornography for a period of three months after being scouted as a pedestrian by a "modeling agency" representative in Miami. "It's a hotbed for young, vulnerable women," she said of the beach city in Florida.
She was handed a business card by the man who stopped her in a strip mall.
I thought about it for two weeks and then made the mistake of saying 'yes' and going in.
As soon as I started to gain popularity, that's when I was like, 'Get the f--k out of this.' This was not what I was trying to do whatsoever. I just wanted to let loose and rebel a little bit. It didn't validate me. Nothing like that ever does. That's not what you should be doing to try and build your self-esteem.
Armstrong and Khalifa have been friends for a while, and he's observed how she's dealt with the challenges of shedding her former image.
I have a ton of empathy and respect for you because while I open up all these articles about you, every one of them starts with 'porn star.' So for three months you did something which you just admitted was a huge mistake.
I've watched how you've tried hard to reinvent yourself. But three months, I mean, that must've taken no time. It's crazy.
Armstrong is no stranger to controversy. He was banned from all sanctioned Olympic sports due to doping offenses dating back to August 1998. As a result, he was stripped of his seven tour victories.
He can relate with the unfortunate consequences on the Internet based on past missteps.
For three months you did something, which you just admitted was a huge mistake, every one of these articles the lead two words are 'porn star'.
To put things in perspective, Armstrong said that a google search for his name would result in articles that all describe the former professional cyclist as "disgraced."
Khalifa said that the death threats were immediate during her short stint in the industry. Residents from her hometown in Lebanon were especially critical of her donning a hijab, the sacred Muslim head-wrap, for her film scenes.
Looking back on it, I don't know what I was thinking... I was 21 and dumb.
Khalifa, now 25-years-old, relocated to Austin where she started her career with a clean-slate as a sports newscaster.
The reason I moved here is because I gave up on just trying to lead a normal life. Now I'm going to try to rebrand and change the narrative. Accept that I'm Mia Khalifa now and try to be successful at that, doing something else.
The past is in the past. It's the present that's not gone unnoticed.
Here's to new beginnings.