Teen Mom's Farrah Abraham Reveals Why She Released a Sex Tape
Few people understand just how well sex sells better than Farrah Abraham.
When her sex tape, Farrah Superstar: Back Door Teen Mom, was released on Vivid Entertainment's site in May 2013, it attracted upward of 2 million views in the first 12 hours—more than tripling the record set by Kim Kardashian.
Quite the dubious honor for the Teen Mom alum, who was simply trying to work through the complicated emotions she felt after the death of boyfriend Derek Underwood—the father of her now-16-year-old daughter Sophia, he was killed in a 2008 car crash—and the unraveling of her relationship with mom Debra Danielsen.
"I was letting my bereavement, the loss of my daughter's father, my depression, my anxiety disorder that I was diagnosed with at that time," Abraham detailed in an exclusive interview with E! News, "it was very much running my life."
So she says when her then-manager Gina Rodriguez (born Gina Delia) suggested the idea of filming a sex tape, Abraham leaned in.
As the Nebraska native recounted in the Sept. 22 episode of A&E’s Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, teaming up with professional porn star James Deen made the whole production—meant to provide her with some needed love, a connection to another person—feel safer, more guilt-free.
"It definitely was a time when I was young, no one was really looking out for me," Abraham explained. "I had a really bad mother wound. I had a really bad complex with my mom not being the mom that I needed."
Noting she was vulnerable, Abraham says she believes her onetime manager saw that she could play on her insecurities.
Sharing that part of her motivation for participating in the docuseries was to show what that might look like, Abraham explained, "It's not directly right in your face. It's not directly staring you in the eye. So, you have to really pay attention and hone in on those tools." (While Rodriguez did not participate in Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, she told The New York Times in 2014 that her goal is to help clients achieve notoriety: "I'm not exploiting them. They come to me. Prior to coming to me, they’ve already exploited themselves.")
These days, Abraham has years of therapy under her well-fitting belt, including a visit to a trauma center (an experience she plans to gift to Sophia once she turns 18) and a 12-step relationship program that's helped her take stock of the people in her life.
Neither Rodriguez, who Abraham cut ties with once news of her sex tape leaked, nor her parents Danielsen and Michael Abraham passed that inspection.
"You see, hey, what are these patterns that I've allowed in my life with people?" Abraham detailed. "And number one was giving my love for protection, and I never got protection from anyone in my life. So that's why you really don't see anyone in my life of the past, because they did not serve something that I definitely need, which is a safe space."
Certainly no one was providing the reality star refuge as word spread that she'd filmed with Deen.
AVN's male performer of the year was quick to tell the press that, no, he and Abraham did not have a personal relationship, just a professional one.
That move, said Abraham, made her "to be something that I was not by an adult entertainer who never had the right to actually go speak out of turn without getting consent." To her, she continued, it "was the most disrespectful, screwed up thing a person could do." (E! News reached out to Deen but has not yet heard back.)
But faced with some bitter lemons, she decided to squeeze out some lemonade, teaming directly with Vivid Entertainment to release the 70-minute tape.
"I was just like, 'Hey, he went and he did this. So now let me go publicly, just take control, take agency over it all,'" Abraham shared. "And I got a lot of negative male toxicity from that, and males hating me because I cut out a male from a huge payday."
Because, yes, she cashed in with a reported seven-figure deal and then some.
"I was like, 'Oh, men want to hate me,'" Abraham detailed. "And I was like, 'Huh, well, I'm going to show everyone that I'm going to make more money and they can continue to hate and they're never going to get in my way.' And so, I ended up making female and male novelty toy lines, and it sold out over and over and over."
Noting she "loved" having the chance to directly sell a product, Abraham shared, "I look forward to that in the future in a different capacity."
The hottest commodity she's peddling these days is herself.
With fans interested in "a talent-led documentary" of her life, "We're working on that right now," said the author of 2012's My Teenage Dream Ended. "I have my next memoir coming out that's looking over all of the years of my life, not just when I was first in bereavement, depression, and first a mom."
Her daughter is also at work on a book and potentially a film as well.
"I think it's time for Sophia to have her own biopic and kind of take that agency and take that voice of her own and share her perspective," said Abraham. "If I can make that happen, we're very excited."
And, of course, there's her day job. In addition to home schooling her teen and fighting for the sort of preventative support that might stop teen pregnancies, Abraham rakes in millions each year through her OnlyFans account.
And she's not the only star making bank. See who else has bared all when it comes to their salaries on the site.
Blac Chyna deactivated her OnlyFans account in March 2023, explaining on The Jason Lee Show, "I'm just changing everything about me. All that stuff is a dead end and I know that…I'm worth way more than that." Still, she added, "Shout out to the people that do still have their OnlyFans and stuff like that. Get your money, don't let the money make you."
As for the rumor that Chyna, whose real name is Angela Renée White, made $240 million on the platform, she told Forbes the figure was about $238 million off.
"The actual number was close to $2 million, within a two-year span," the model, who shares son King Cairo with ex Tyga and daughter Dream with ex Rob Kardashian, told Forbes after she left the site. "I opened it in 2020, so right when the pandemic had hit. I had opened it because I was like, 'Oh my gosh, what's about to happen?'"
Since joining in April 2021, Bhad Bhabie had grossed $71 million and netted (after subtracting expenses, etc.) $57 million, according to an OnlyFans earning statement the rapper (born Danielle Bregoli) shared in July 2024.
To quote Angela Yee, who reported on the reveal on Way Up, "That is crazy."
When Annie Knight first started on OnlyFans, she made about $5,000 a month.
"Then when I got fired for doing OnlyFans, I decided to do it full-time, and I was making $30,000 a month," the Australian adult entertainer and aspiring mainstream porn star told News.com.au in June 2025. "It was May 2023 when I started to make over $100,000 per month, and that quickly crawled up to $200,000 per month, where I have comfortably sat for the past two years."
Having sex with 583 men in six hours—a feat she said she accomplished in May 2025—required more exertion, but the stunt also resulted in a $400,000 boost to her monthly receipts.
"Now it's about $600,000," Knight told E! News a month later. And she wasn't planning to raise her $14.99 per month subscription rate because, she said, "I like to make it accessible for everyone."
Lily Phillips, who made headlines when she endeavored to have sex with 100 guys in one day, told E! News in January 2025, post-stunt, that her earnings were "in the millions." Not that she was doing it for the money.
"For me, there's no amount of money that would make me stop," she said. "There's no goal. It's not like, 'Oh, if I hit this figure, I'll stop doing this.'"
Farrah Abraham, a member of the original cast of 16 and Pregnant and then Teen Mom, said she was traumatized by her 2013 foray into the porn business—but OnlyFans provided a safe—and apparently lucrative—space to work in adult entertainment.
"It's millions," Abraham said of her OnlyFans revenue on a June 2025 episode of Teen Mom alum Kailyn Lowry's Barely Famous podcast. "Millions of dollars a year."
Teen Mom 2 alum Jenelle Evans joined OnlyFans in May 2022 in a joint venture with then-husband David Eason.
They broke up for good in 2024, but Evans' efforts weren't for naught: In an August 2025 livestream, she purportedly showed pal Tori Rhyne the amount she'd made from OnlyFans over the years. Looking at Evans' phone, Rhyne announced, "$1,511,578."
While Evans pushed back at her friend's assessment that she's a millionaire, Rhyne added, "You have to think about all the money you've made in the past. This is just one little thing."
More famous ever after being the subject of a bizarre 2023 death hoax, rapper Lil Tay got on OnlyFans days after her 18th birthday in July 2025 and apparently made more than $1 million in three hours.
"You can hate on me all you want," she said in an Instagram video after sharing a purported screengrab that showed earnings of $511,003.79 for subscriptions, $486,668.11 for messages and $26,736.19 in tips.
"We broke the f--k out of that onlyfans record," she wrote.
Bella Thorne was one of the first Hollywood stars associated with OnlyFans—and in August 2020 she became the first content creator on the site to make more than $1 million in one day, according to the platform.
She wanted her page to be a place where she could "really just be more personal with my fans," Thorne, who charged $20 for a monthly subscription, told the Los Angeles Times after doubling her haul within a week. Content included "good night and good morning personal messages" sent via voice memo, as well as sexy-but-not-explicit photos.
Former race car driver Renee Gracie—the first Australian woman to be a full-time driver on the V8 Supercar circuit—pumped the brakes on that career in favor of lapping the competition on OnlyFans.
“When I was racing, I was broke", she told Truly in May 2024. "I gave up racing to become an OnlyFans model and in just over six months, I earned 1 million (Australian dollars) and bought my multimillion-dollar mansion. My absolute dream would be when I’m 40 years old to be completely retired and done from working."
Since joining the site, "My life has done a complete 180," she continued. "I went from not being able to afford anything and having to take loans out, literally living week by week, day by day, and now, I'm really comfortable."
After a year on the platform, cofounder of Florida-based content creator collective Bop House Sophie Rain—whose content is NSFW but not as X-rated as some—thanked her subscribers in December 2024 for blessing her with $43 million, including $4.3 million from one devoted fan.
But that was only the beginning, according to Sophie, who said in an August 2025 conversation with David Dobrik that, in 18 months on the site, she'd made $82 million.
“No one believes me,” she said, "but it is very true.”
Bop House's Camilla Araujo said it, Bonnie Blue didn't.
But when Blue—who shared in January 2025 that she had completed the feat of having sex with a record 1,057 men in 12 hours—asked Araujo how much she made on OnlyFans, Araujo's answer was, "I make roughly the same amount as you do, like 2, 2.1 in a good month."
As in $2.1 million.
"You may or may not be lyin', but…," Blue, who's real name is Tia Billinger, said.
Araujo replied, "I mean, just the thing, I don't have to f--k a thousand guys to make that much."
But, Blue added, "I've got a thousand reasons more to enjoy my job."
In a January 2025 video, Araujo asked fellow Bop House members how much they'd made in the previous month from their smorgasbord of sexy content.
Sophie Rain said $6 million and her cofounder Aishah Sofey said $2.5 million, while members Alina Rose said $1 million, Julia Filippo $600,000 and Joy Mei $100,000.
Filippo told Vulture that she reached $600,000 in a month after spending time on set with Blue, prompting a bunch of the British porn performer's fans to follow her as well.
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