Some legacies come with a gold star. Others come wrapped in a plastic DVD case with “Backdoor Teen Mom” scrawled across the front. For Farrah Abraham, former Teen Mom alum turned adult film headline act, it was the latter. And according to her, the fallout came fast, vicious, and in the form of playground gossip when her daughter, Sophia, was just five years old.
The reality TV star-turned-professional scandal magnet, now 33, spilled the details on The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson and Robert Kelly, recounting how her daughter first learned about her mother’s extracurricular cinematic pursuits—from schoolmates, no less.
Jay, 47, lobbed the question: “At what age did you have the talk about your, uh, career choices?”
Farrah, ever the media-trained survivor, responded with a tale of suburbia gone sour. “That’s when I yanked her out of public school,” she declared. “I don’t know, man, why are 5-year-olds coming to school talking about my sex life?”
An excellent question, really. But kids repeat what they hear at home, and in this case, some dad clearly wasn’t keeping his Google searches private.
The Escape from the Suburbs
Farrah doubled down. “I got out of the suburbs. Bye suburbs. Not gonna happen anymore.” Because when the neighborhood gossip mills start churning out X-rated headlines, it’s either pack your bags or start signing autographs at PTA meetings.
For those late to the party, Farrah’s brush with the adult industry began in 2013 with a “leaked” tape featuring none other than seasoned porn veteran James Deen. It was as “leaked” as an open bar tab in Vegas, but hey, marketing is marketing.
James, ever the professional, later told TODAY that the production was anything but an innocent home video. “If you’re going to pass it off as amateur, you don’t hire a well-known porn star. You hire some random dude,” he said, in what might be the most bizarre piece of career advice ever given.
From MTV to the XXX Aisle
Farrah, who shot to reality TV fame in 2009 via 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, eventually found herself on the outs with MTV. Officially, the network gave her the boot in 2017 over her adult industry side hustle. Unofficially, it was a collision course between corporate branding and one woman’s unshakable belief in her own marketability.
She fired back on Facebook, railing against Viacom, calling them “women-hating, sex-shaming” purveyors of “Weinstein company power trips.” A day later, she spun a new tune on Instagram: “Viacom Legal confirms I have not been fired, I have not breached my contract.”
In the end, the split was inevitable. Viacom issued a perfectly sterile statement in 2018: “We respect Farrah’s decision to pursue other endeavors. We wish her the best.” That’s PR-speak for “We’ve had enough.”
The Fallout Continues
Now, years later, the ghosts of Farrah’s past still linger. The internet never forgets, and neither do 5-year-olds who overhear their dads talking about “Backdoor Teen Mom.” For Sophia, the reality of growing up in the wake of a sex tape scandal has already set in.
As for Farrah? She’s still moving, still hustling, and still making headlines. The suburbs couldn’t contain her, and neither could MTV. The question is, what’s next?
Whatever it is, you can bet it won’t be boring.
Last modified: March 18, 2025
