Adult film actress Riley Reid revealed the true cost that working in the porn industry has had on her personal life in an emotional video.
Reid – real name Ashley Mathews – swiftly became a hugely popular name in the pornographic industry after making her debut at 19 years old.
Over the following years she would go on to win numerous awards for her work, including Performer of the Year at the XBIZ Awards in 2014 and being inducted into XRCO Hall of Fame in 2021.
She has since used her popularity to grow a sizeable following on notorious adult site OnlyFans, so it’s safe to say that she’s made a huge chunk of money from her x-rated career.
Riley Reid is one of the most well known names in the adult industry (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
However Reid, now 33, has been candid about the sacrifices you have to make when choosing to go into the adult industry, specifically when it comes to your personal life.
Sharing her advice to anyone thinking of joining the adult industry in a (now deleted) YouTube video back in 2020, the actress revealed that she advises people against getting involved.
“A lot of times when people ask me if they should do porn, I tell them no,” she said, before going on to explain how it can cause difficulty in your personal life.
“I tell them that it makes life really hard, it makes dating really hard, it makes your family life really hard, it makes intimacy hard.”
She continued: “If you’re putting yourself out there and the world is now judging you, you have to be OK with being shamed every day of your life.”
Reid then went on to explain how working in the industry had made her anxious about starting a family, as she was concerned about how her children would be treated.
“I don’t even want to have children because I do porn, because I’m worried [about] the way that people will treat my child,” she added.
Reid became one of the porn world’s biggest stars, but it hasn’t been without problems (Instagram/Riley Reid)
Outside of her career in the adult industry, Reid has settled down after tying the knot with Latvian free runner Pasha Petkuns, with the couple welcoming their first child together in July 2022.
Reid has since revealed that her daughter has already received trolling online due to her job, telling viewers in a more recent video: “The amount of people who leave mean comments about my baby is crazy to me.
“Grow up. Stop being mean to a baby.”
The actress has also spoken about her decision to stop creating content with male performers, explaining that her videos had made dating ‘really hard’ due to her on-screen persona.
