Fact Check: Mia Khalifa calls Hardik Pandya her favourite cricketer? Here’s the truth
A podcast video claiming to show former adult star Mia Khalifa naming Hardik Pandya as her favourite cricketer has gone viral.
By M Ramesh Naik
Claim:The video shows former adult star Mia Khalifa mentioning Hardik Pandya as her favourite cricketer.
Fact:The claim is false. The video has AI-generated audio.
Hyderabad: A video allegedly showing former adult star Mia Khalifa naming Hardik Pandya as her favourite cricketer during a conversation with Steven Bartlett on ‘The Diary Of A CEO’ podcast is going viral on social media.
The video features the following conversation:
Steven Bartlett: Who is your favourite cricketer?
Mia Khalifa: Hardik Pandya was my favourite cricketer.
Steven Bartlett: Wait, do you watch cricket?
Mia Khalifa: I started watching cricket just because of him. He’s the ultimate clutch player and a true saviour for the Indian cricket team. I also love his confidence, attitude and fashion sense.
Steven Bartlett: Why is he your favourite player?
Mia Khalifa: Guys like him are born only once in a century. I never see fear in his eyes. He never feels pressure. That’s the reason I love him.
An Instagram user shared the video with the caption, “Beauty with brains.” (Archive)
A text overlay on the video reads, “She knows his value, unlike Indians – Former adult star Mia Khalifa reveals Hardik Pandya as her favorite cricketer. Her knowledge >>>>>”
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video has AI-generated audio.
A keyword search led us to The Diary Of A CEO YouTube channel, where the full interview with Mia Khalifa was uploaded on May 18, 2023, with the title, ‘Mia Khalifa Opens Up About The Dark Side Of The Adult Entertainment Industry | E248.’
We watched the entire one-hour, seven-minute episode, but at no point did Mia Khalifa mention Hardik Pandya or cricket. Instead, in the podcast, Mia discusses aspects of her life such as anxiety and depression, lacking confidence, therapy, relationships and personal growth and social media.
Additionally, upon close examination of the viral video, we found that the lip movements did not sync with the audio, indicating possible manipulation. The audio also had abrupt stops, pauses and an artificial tone, further suggesting it was manipulated/generated using AI (Artificial Intelligence).
To verify the authenticity of the audio, we ran the video through an AI detection tool, Hive Moderation and Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, which determined with 99.8 per cent certainty that the audio in the viral clip was AI-generated. Hiya assigned an authenticity score of 1/100, indicating a high likelihood of deepfake manipulation.
Furthermore, we searched for any legitimate sources or past statements where Mia Khalifa spoke about Hardik Pandya or her favourite cricketer. However, we found no such interviews, videos or news articles to support the claim.
The viral claim that Mia Khalifa named Hardik Pandya as her favourite cricketer is false. The video has AI-generated audio, and she has never publicly made any statement about Hardik Pandya.
