Farrah Abraham found herself in the public eye at an early age through the lens of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. The reality star was constant fodder for tabloids. She made headlines, trending during the formidable years of Twitter (now X), as explored in the September 22 episode of Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes. 

Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Mom was released and distributed by Vivid Entertainment in 2013 with Abraham and adult film star James Deen. The 34-year-old sat down for the first time for a documentary with A&E in hopes of setting the record straight on her much-talked about sex tape and all she has endured in life. 

Producers also brought on sex tape broker Kevin Blatt, Dr. Drew Pinsky, and Abraham’s father Michael to bring their perspectives on all surrounding the Vivid distributed release Here the TV personality gets candid about why she decided to participate in the docuseries. Plus, Abraham opens up about how she tackled the subject with her now 16-year-old daughter Sophia and what she is up to now. 

What made you feel this was the right place to share your story? 

Farrah Abraham: I believe this was the right time to sit down. I was bothered about doing this for over a year or maybe longer. The more and more I see other people trying to not get my perspective or even know what honestly went on or even look at the facts. I think that is what I’ve been dealing with since the beginning of this sexual experience. I think for me, all of the mental health, the trauma work and all of the things I’ve done since that experience have really changed my life. I wanted to see if I could use my words and put my emotions into words and really talk about that. I wish I could have spoken more. It has been a couple of years since I sat down for this, and I feel like I speak about it even better now with my ketamine treatments and work I’ve done. I think seeing myself, being able to talk at whatever capacity I could about it, I’m really proud of myself. I am really proud of challenging myself, even though I wasn’t feeling completely right about the project, I’m happy I showed up for myself. 

Have you seen the episode yet? 

I did see the episode or some bits of it. 

What were your thoughts on how it came out? What are one or two things you think may be cleared up through this docuseries episode?

You hear my words, but they are edited. You don’t see fully what I’ve said to the network. You get other people’s skewed words on top of mine. So, I think if people were to pay attention to what I am saying and meaning, they’ll see how much hurt I’ve gone through. I don’t want any other person who is coerced, groomed, normalizing non-concent culture. I think everyone who is a victim of that and wounded from that will equally be proud of me using my words. I think that as a whole I’m very proud of. That’s one of my happiest moments sharing whatever I could. I felt that when I watched that. I think another happy moment for me is I think I really love Dr. Jenn [Mann] and her commentary so people understand self-compassion, self-esteem work, trauma, that most women are going through when these experiences happen. I don’t know if it’s true for others, but it’s true for me. 

I just like to see how Dr. Drew came to speak upon me. The production had to tell them Farrah is actually getting help from this, and he was surprised. I think it’s awesome for people who have worked with me to have their eyes open to who Farrah Abraham really is and what they’ve made me out to be. I think it’s awesome that others who are dealing with sexual intimacy issues are getting to hear me speak. Maybe it will help them speak as well. I think it’s great Dr. Jenn took time to speak about empathy and compassion instead of labeling, blaming, and coming off of your own storyline for someone’s life. So, that is really beautiful about the project. 

How was it seeing your father participating? What did you take from his perspective? 

I think there is a mix of confusion with my father. I think all the therapy that I have wasted my money on for my family really didn’t help. My father showed up without my consent. I think that is a big topic in our lives for me. Sometimes with me we’ll have to phrase things or put things into perspective that he can remember that he knows with his disabilities. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t told. I can’t have any say in what other people say. So, I will just say I was happy to see my dad, to whatever capacity he could show up. Our conversations have been a little awkward around this episode. That’s all I can say. 

SANTA MONICA, CA – JUNE 16: TV personalities Farrah Abraham (L) and Sophia Abraham attend the 2018 MTV Movie And TV Awards at Barker Hangar on June 16, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for MTV)

As your daughter gets older, how do you broach this topic? 

For my daughter I did have her watch this. I think my daughter’s biggest concern was, “mom, why didn’t you feel comfortable to speak more and go in-depth even more.” She wasn’t there in New York when this was recorded. Sometimes I don’t privy her to all the hardships of work, and horrible adult behavior that I have to work with. I just told her I felt comfortable with what I said and everything I said was there. I’m not the editor or the producer. I blatantly said what it was, but I guess it didn’t make the episode. She just felt editing left it up in the air and wasn’t as straightforward as I was in the interview. 

What is one thing you wanted to be shown or said that wasn’t shown? 

I think just my direct correlation with this not being consensual to me. I think my direct correlation with the criminal criminology of what someone else did to me. I understand that is a different matter, but we also have people who are adult entertainers out there insinuating other things. Like I had production and film crews [for the sex tape] and all this, and I didn’t get to see me when I was there stating that this is what it was. There was no editing of video footage of that. I just have to emphasize this should have been made in the show or been part of the cut or the production of this show. I didn’t see that. If you saw that, great. But my family didn’t see that. I did not see that. My family was highly confused with some bald-headed manager who claimed he managed me, even talked to me, and had no receipts of this. He said he worked with me and talked derogatory about me, stating I had a production. All of these other things. My family and I were like more could have made it through editing for clarity for everyone. Why were there complete liars commenting that they worked with me? There were some confusing bits, and it confused my family and myself. 

What do you want to say to people who haven’t caught up with you in recent years? What life update can you provide? 

Currently, in my life I’m still dealing with legal issues. I’m graduating with my master’s as a chief marketing officer and finishing up my law program. I’m working on my first documentary on my life that is talent led. I think it needs to come from me and be edited by myself. I’m excited for my daughter’s first books, my second big memoir that I’ve been working on. I think the sky’s the limit. The more I share and the more I have agency over editing and over my life, I hope that will empower others to do the same. 

When it comes to 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, how would you describe their impact? How would you describe the evolution of reality TV since then? 

I feel like Teen Mom will always be a part of generations of other family members. I love seeing it every day when I’m out and when Sophia is out. Teen Mom is something special. I believe it was created for a different reason, but it ended up being a catalyst and advocacy for teens or those who can procreate to be included in a conversation for contraception prevention that they don’t have access to. I believe that’s why I just saw today from having everyone coming up to me saying, ‘thank you for the conversation. Thank you for talking about this. Thank you for showing this. I was unaware of this.”

That’s why my daughter is doing an advocacy project for laws to include people like myself, for teen moms, and people who can procreate, whether by choice or by force. I think that is why 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, is so significant because I don’t know why, but everyone is very interested in how teens or young parents parent and make it through life. We have no choice. It’s something in our society to get pregnant at an early age because there is no protection that is working like myself on birth control where I turned out to be a mom. So, I can’t wait to live my life’s legacy and advocate for this. It’s 17 years later and still very present in our 2025. God bless all the families, and I’m excited to continue advocating. 

Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Mondays, 9/8c, A&E