Adult star Riley Reid has revealed the bitter reality of her job in an emotional interview.

Reid - whose real name is Ashley Mathews - is a 31-year-old star who has worked in the adult entertainment industry since 2010, when she was just 19 years old.

Various outlets like LA Weekly and CNBC ranked her highly amongst other popular adult entertainers, and, in 2021, she was inducted into the X-Rated Critics Organization Hall of Fame.

Despite the Florida-born actress' success, she admitted in a video - that was posted in 2020 and resurfaced on Twitter - that her job destroyed her relationship with her family and pleaded with viewers not to get into the industry.

Watch Reid's video below:

"A lot of times when people ask me if they should do p*rn, I tell them no, 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," Reid revealed in the clip that has amassed 2.9 million views. "You have to be OK with being shamed every day of your life."

The actress became tearful when she said the "shame" she has received had put her off starting a family of her own, explaining: "I don't even want to have children because I do p*rn, because I'm worried [about] the way that people will treat my child."

Mathews went on to state that her mother had been supportive at the beginning of her career, allowing her to "do whatever" but that soon changed after she set "boundaries".

"When I started to set these boundaries, not giving her money or things like that - it made our relationship a bit more difficult and almost toxic and so it sucks," she disclosed. "I don't have a mom anymore, I don't talk to her, I miss having a mom."

"I feel like you can't rewind and you can't go back. I don't have that relationship with her anymore. I don't ever think I will and that bums me out. It bums me out a lot," she added.

In addition to this, the adult star disclosed that her career had driven a wedge between her and her "religious" father who said that she can't visit him because of her stepmom.

"I'm not allowed to go visit my dad anymore because my stepmom doesn't like that I do p*rn," she emotionally said. "When I was like well can we go get coffee or breakfast, he was like 'I don't want to be seen in public with you' and that just f***ing hurt so bad and it sucks."

Wiping back tears, she concluded: "I’ve lost my family, I don't talk to my brothers or my sisters. I think that they all kind of tried to take advantage of me and stuff or they're just like my dad - don't want to be around me."

Despite Reid saying that she had second thoughts about having children, she and her husband Pasha Petkuns - whom she married in 2021 - became parents to a baby girl in November last year. The actress has taken to her social media to share heart-warming pictures of her bundle of joy. However, she has also put out a video asking people to stop making comments about her child because of her job. "The amount of people who leave mean comments about my baby is crazy to me," she said in a video posted earlier this month. "Grow up. Stop being mean to a baby."

Featured image credit: Kathy Hutchins / Alamy

Hundreds of adult film stars and sex workers allegedly had their Instagram accounts deleted this year, and an increasing number of those in the business are now fighting for their right to be seen on social media platforms, the BBC reports.

One of the leading voices in this flight belongs to Alana Evans, president of the Adult Performers Actors Guild.

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"I should be able to model my Instagram account on Sharon Stone or any other verified profile, but the reality is that doing that would get me deleted," says Evans.

Her organisation has collated a list of more than 1,300 performers who say that despite not displaying any nudity or sex, their accounts have been deleted by Instagram's content moderators for violations of the site's community standards.

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"They discriminate against us because they don't like what we do for a living," Evans says.

In June, campaigners met with Instagram's representatives, which led to the establishment of a new appeal system for removed accounts.

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Soon after, however, the talks halted and adult performers' accounts reportedly continued being deleted.

For Evans, the last straw came when the account of porn star Jessica Jaymes was removed after her death in September this year.

"When I saw that Jessica's account was deleted, my heart sunk. It was the last straw," she says.

Although the account was eventually reinstated, the same cannot be said for other Instagram users in the business.

Controversial content is regularly posted on Instagram. In fact, rapper YG even posted a video of him handing his three-year-old daughter a bag of weed:

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In 2018, a campaign was waged to report accounts belonging to x-rated performers, with the intent of having them removed. An anonymous user, known amongst sex workers' rights campaigners as ''Omid'', claims to have been responsible for the deletion of hundreds of accounts.

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Adult worker and sex workers' rights activist, Ginger Banks, was one of the targets of the effort.

She said:

"When you put time and effort into building an account with over 300,000 followers and it gets deleted, that makes you feel defeated. Even if you’re following the rules, you still have your account deleted. And that’s the part that’s frustrating.

The people reporting us don’t understand that people’s incomes are affected, or they don’t care. They think that we shouldn’t be doing this job or it shouldn’t exist. I’ve never posted explicit images on Instagram. But even a picture of me wearing leggings could be extremely provocative to someone, and worthy of being reported. We’re letting these businesses determine what is art and what is pornography and then punish us."

A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told the BBC:

"With such a globally diverse community, we have to put rules in place around nudity and sexual solicitation to ensure content is appropriate for everyone, particularly young people.

"We will take action on content reported to us if it breaks these rules. We give people the opportunity to appeal the decision and will reinstate content if we mistakenly remove something."

Riley Reid has revealed why she no longer makes adult films with men.

The 34-year-old, whose real name is Ashley Mathews, is one of the most well-known names in adult entertainment.

Over the years, Reid built huge success in the industry, racking up more than 45 awards, including multiple wins for "best performer".

But later in her career, the star made a major shift in the kind of content she creates, deciding she would no longer film with male co-stars.

Reid decided she no longer wants to film with male costars. Credit: Paul Archuleta / Getty

Reid Explains Why She Doesn't Film With Men

During an interview on an episode of Jordyn Jones' What They Don't Tell You podcast, the adult entertainer opened up about her career and the difficulties she's experienced in the dating sphere.

Reid told Jones that "Dating was really hard," adding: "Especially as I grew a name for myself, it was hard to meet someone who [didn't] know who I was."

She shared that it was difficult for her past partners to make the distinction between her work persona and her real self. "They met me first in their mind as Riley, so it was really hard to like reverse and teach them that I'm Ashley," she added.

While Reid hasn't retired from the adult film industry entirely, she has narrowed down the type of content she will participate in.

She explained: "I didn't retire but I just stopped shooting boy-girl porn.

"It was a choice I made on my own but I made that choice because I was lonely and I wanted love and affection and stuff, and I was like: 'I'm not gonna be able to find this while I'm performing,'" she added.

Reid with her husband, Pasha Petkuns. Credit: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty

The adult star is now married to Latvian free runner Pasha Petkuns, with whom she shares a daughter, Emma.

Since becoming a mother, Reid has been open about the reality that her past will continue shaping how some people view her, and she has already seen that spill over onto her child through cruel comments online.

"The amount of people who leave mean comments about my baby is crazy to me," she said in a now-removed TikTok video calling out the trolling. "Grow up. Stop being mean to a baby."

Reid also shared that she's realistic about the long-term impact her career will have on her daughter.

"It’s definitely a real fact that my career will affect my kid at some point in some degree," she acknowledged. "And it is up to me as a parent to try and coach it in the most appropriate manner possible."

Featured image credit: Albert L. Ortega / Getty