Teen Mom’s Farrah Abraham Has Made ‘Other Little Sex Tapes’ Since 2013 Video (Exclusive)

Farrah Abraham is giving new insight into what led up to her infamous sex tape. 

Audiences were first introduced to Abraham, now 34, through MTV’s 16 and Pregnant in 2009 and laterTeen Mom, as she welcomed her daughter Sophia at age 17. 

Fast forward to May 2013, when a sex tape dubbed Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom  was released. While the story surrounding what happened leading up to its release has varied over the years, Abraham looks back on the experience in A&E’s Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes docuseries. 

Before she sat for the 2023 interview included in the episode that dropped on Sept. 22, the Iowa native tells PEOPLE, she felt compelled to participate in the series, although she had planned to take time off following her stay at a trauma treatment center. 

“People are always trying to claim their agency through their sex lives, and that is just something that never stops being attracted to me from fans online and emails and in person,” she says. “So I was happy that I could show up for it.”

Abraham endured numerous hardships when she was younger — many of which were captured onscreen for MTV — including the death of her daughter’s father in a car crash before Sophia was born and a volatile relationship with her mother, Debra Danielsen. 

“There was all of this stuff, and I was clearly going through massive bereavement, widower vibes for my daughter’s father passing away,” she tells PEOPLE. “And so there was this whole storm on top of the storm internally, emotionally, that I was going through and insecurity, self-esteem, obviously the whole mess. There was also just me obviously not ever getting along with my mother.”

Amid the chaos, Abraham came to know a retired adult film star named Gina Rodriguez, who stepped in as a maternal figure and manager to the young reality star. According to Abraham, Rodriguez introduced the idea of having a sexual encounter with a porn star.

“She said, ‘you can record it, Farrah, and if you ever need it or like you’re having a down time, you have it’,” she recalls in the docuseries. 

According to Abraham, making it public was never part of the plan, but the video didn’t remain private once word got out about its existence. She claims that if James Deen — the adult film actor she filmed it with — hadn’t publicly spoken about the tape, the story would have ended differently.

“If someone wasn’t a bad person the next day on their own rampage for their own ego, this would’ve never happened,” she says, adding: “I can honestly say from looking at all of my sexual intimate relationships, that that is the only one where someone misrepresented themselves purposely to take advantage of me, the end.” (Deen was later accused of rape and assault by multiple women, though per the docuseries, he was never criminally charged and denied all claims.)

After news of the tape got out, Abraham and her parents decided they needed to “take control” of the situation. She eventually cut ties with Rodriguez and met directly with Steven Hirsch of the pornography production company Vivid Entertainment. 

“I think what you saw me do is, ‘You know what? F— you all. You’re not getting money off of me. I’m giving this to someone who knows what to do with it,’ ” she says in the docuseries. 

Abraham ultimately reached a reported seven figure deal with Vivid Entertainment. A year later, a sequel to the tape titled Farrah 2: Backdoor and More was released. 

And while she maintains that the circumstances surrounding the leaked 2013 tape were out of her control, she continues to explore her sexuality — on her own terms. 

“I do have other little sex tapes with my boyfriend or boyfriends that I’ve had,” Abraham, who is also an OnlyFans content creator and performed her debut comedy show earlier this year at a New York City gentleman’s club, admits. “And not a damn one of them, not a damn other man has ever gone and talked to a news person about my sex life with them.”

Looking back on her tape more than a decade later, Abraham, who is a bestselling author and podcast host, says she’s used the situation as a learning opportunity both for herself and her teenage daughter.

“I don’t think I really regret anything,” she says. “I think if I didn’t learn how to have agency and take control over my life, I probably wouldn’t be as successful as I am today. And if anything, it speaks loud and volumes of the tool set that I’ve taught my daughter in order to survive this big old world that is out there.”

All six episodes of Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes are now available to stream on A&E.