She is one of the most popular and successful adult stars working in pornography.
Now aged 33, Reid – whose real name is Ashley Matthews – has become one of the most recognisable faces in the adult industry, winning more than 40 awards since first starting out in 2010.
But as with any career, work can impact life at home, with that maybe more so in an industry as open as pornography.
Reid, who has 2.1 million followers over on Instagram, has ventured out in to other industries over the years, including running her own clothing line and launching an AI product. But it is her time in porn that has had an impact on her personal life.
Speaking in an emotional YouTube video, Reid opened up on how being an adult star has changed her life away from sets.
In the 2020 clip, Reid candidly says: “A lot of times when people ask me if they should do porn, 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.
“If you’re putting yourself out there and the world is now judging you, you have to be okay with being shamed every day of your life.”
Reid is very open in interviews (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
In the video, Reid goes on to say the negative side of the industry left her never wanting to start her own family due to how it could impact her.
“I don’t even want to have children because I do porn, because I’m worried [about] the way that people will treat my child,” she said.
She also revealed her career in porn soured her relationship with her own mother, saying she ‘doesn’t have a mum any more’.
Reid said: “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.
“I don’t have a mum any more, I don’t talk to her, I miss having a mum. I feel like you can’t rewind and you can’t go back. I don’t have that relationship with her any more. I don’t ever think I will and that bums me out. It bums me out a lot.”
Riley Reid has 2m followers on Instagram (Instagram / letrileylive)
Since the comments, Reid has had a change of heart, having gotten married and having a daughter with her husband, free-running athlete Pasha Petkuns.
But it hasn’t stopped the trolls.
In one clip posted to social media, Reid says: “The amount of people who leave mean comments about my baby is crazy to me.
“Grow up. Stop being mean to a baby.”
Speaking to former adult star Adam22 for the No Jumper podcast, Reid revealed that she hates people calling her Riley in her personal life, with her husband Pasha calling her by her real name, Ashley.
After Adam22 accidentally calls her the wrong name on the episode, she says: “Stuff like that is the things that I think of because we are family friends right and so I’m like, ‘yo, Adam you can’t be calling me Riley’.
Especially, you know, I don’t want [Adam22’s son] Parker to grow up calling me Riley only now because I have a daughter right, and I want Parker and Emma [her daughter] to be friends.”
