Sit With Hitlist: Sunny Leone responds to Mia Khalifa's claims that adult industry is exploitative

Sunny Leone

Sunny Leone began her career in showbiz with the adult entertainment industry. Although she was quite young, Sunny was in control of the content she put out on the internet, and insists she has had no unpleasant experiences.

Former adult porn star Mia Khalifa had spoken out about rampant exploitation in the adult film industry. In 2014, she shot a dozen videos for $12,000, which remained her lifetime's income from it. Her popularity subsequently soared, but she gained nothing. And she never actually wished to be a ‘porn star', she said - coming out in public, eventually, shining a light on the exploitative nature of America's adult film industry. To which, Sunny responds, "How do I put this in a nice way? Read your contract!"

She continues during Mid-day's Sit With Hitlist latest episode, "I worked with the best and the best people. I have no horror stories. I read through every single contract, I corrected every single contract so that I was gaining something from it. I was in control of everything that I was doing. And I do believe in that industry there are different sides, but from my perspective I was in complete control. I saw it as business and I saw it as uh a means to get toward something different. So, it wasn't like a free fall in my world. So, everybody experiences are different, mine was totally different...

"If you read your contract then maybe you wouldn't be exploited because in there, there are many different things. Let's say you are going to broadcast this. Now you are going to broadcast on one platform right. But you also broadcast on XYZ. You also license it out to XYZ. You also give it to different advertising outlets and all these different things work and go. There is one million places this interview can go if you want it to. If I sign a contract and say no, this is not going to happen because those things need to be in my control then they are my control. That's just reading contract," Sunny explains.

"It is just really that simple. And everybody makes it out to seem like uh so much more difficult or that they are being taken advantage of. But you can only be taken advantage of if you allow them to. In certain circumstances maybe they lie to you. I am not going to say every situation is the same," she adds.