Former adult film star Mia Khalifa has revealed she left porn because she received death threats from terrorists.
The Lebanese-American influencer and social media star said she received threats from the so-called Islamic State (or Daesh), with some messages even threatening decapitation.
"It all started to spiral out of control when the death threats from ISIS started coming in. That's when I stepped away," the 25-year-old told disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong on his podcast Forward this week, as reported by Daily Star.
Khalifa only worked in the adult film industry for a few months between 2014 and 2015, however, she quickly rose to viral fame. In December of 2014, she was ranked as the No. 1 performer by the popular adult website PornHub.
In one of her more iconic films, the star wears a hijab while having sexual intercourse with a male actor and an older hijab-wearing actress, who plays the part of Khalifa's stepmother. While porn viewers apparently liked the video, many individuals were also outraged by the performance.
Defending the video in 2015, Khalifa said it was meant to be satirical and that Hollywood routinely portrays Muslims in a far more offensive and negative way.
"There are Hollywood movies that depict Muslims in a much worse manner than any scene Bang Bros [the company who made the video] could produce," Khalifa said, according to The Daily Mail.
Although Khalifa may have played a Muslim character on screen, she was raised in a Christian family. Born in Lebanon, she moved to the United States in 2000.
Beyond talking about the death threats during the podcast, Khalifa also appeared to express regret about her work in porn.
"Looking back on it, I don’t know what I was thinking ... I was 21 and dumb," she told Armstrong, according to Fox News.
"As soon as I started to gain popularity that’s when I was like ‘get the f--- out of this’ ... this was not what I was trying to do whatsoever," she explained.
"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."
Khalifa went on to say that she is now working on changing her image.
She recently worked as a co-host of the sports talk-show Out of Bounds but quit after just two months, the Mirror reported.
Despite her decision to leave porn, Khalifa has maintained a large following online. She has more than 2 million followers on Twitter and about 5.6 million on Instagram.