Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘Kent is the only place I don’t wear a mask - I feel safe here’
From Miami to Milan, social media star and model Mia Khalifa keeps her 26 million followers on Instagram entertained with glamorous photos taken across the world. So why is Kent her favourite place of all? In an exclusive interview, she tells reporter Max
In one of her most recent Instagram posts, a bikiniclad Mia Khalifa lounges on a yacht off the coast of Miami Beach, skyscrapers towering in the background.
Yet today, she is sitting in her manager’s garden in Faversham, smiling as she fiddles with her cardigan. “It’s so cosy. It’s so beautiful here. I love it so much,” says the 31-year-old. “Everyone is so nice and, surprisingly, everything is here.
“When I brought my best friend here, who lives in Miami as well, he had the same reaction.
“This is the only place that I don’t wear a mask when I go around because no one gives a s***.
“First of all, even if I do get recognised, I feel safe – but I don’t get recognised for the most part. I feel safe staying here by myself.”
On social media she still goes by Mia Khalifa, the name that brought her fame during a short stint in adult entertainment a decade ago. But beneath the public persona, you’ll find Sarah Joe, a non-drinking, witchloving Lebanese-american immigrant who prefers to spend her evenings at home and has found peace in the humble Victorian terraces of Faversham.
While she admits some aspects of the traditional market town can prove frustrating – such as the lack of available food delivery services like Deliveroo – she has found so much to fall in love with.
“I will never stop coming back. I’m actually looking at property here, but your taxes are s***,” she says.
“I would live here in a heartbeat. “The pace here is so much nicer.
“It’s really hard to be somewhere in America and feel like, ’Oh, I could raise kids here.’
“You feel that here. You feel like you could raise kids here and they would have a good life and grow up to be decent people with values.” Sarah describes Kent as a “huge hub for the art scene” and proceeds to reel off a long list of local businesses she adores.
The work of Faversham tattoo artist Heather Moore features on her arm, with three small pieces showing women in Lebanon “challenging authority and empowering the creative”. “I love what Heather did with them. I can’t wait to get more from her,” Sarah says.
She is inspired by the work of local artist and curator James Lee Duffy and heaps praise on Faversham’s Abbie Walsh for her embroidery and costume-making skills. Sarah describes Macknade Food Market and The Goods Shed in Canterbury as “so amazing”, while she jokes that she would love to be sponsored by Kent Crisps.
“Send us a package every time I come here – I would love that,” she laughs.
She says Whitstable has the most delicious oysters she’s ever eaten – while The Forge on the town’s sea wall sells the best doughnuts.
“In the morning when I wake up and the tide goes out, I see this tiny little tractor that I cannot take seriously,” Sarah says.
“They drive it on the sand, collect the oysters, I go and eat the oysters and the tide comes back in.
“Where else do you get to see that? Even in America, it doesn’t matter where you are, you’re not seeing it – it’s really special.”
She even has her very own ’witch’ in Margate, Tree Carr, who offers her guidance and keeps her “grounded”.
It is a relationship Sarah feels is key to maintaining her well-being.
“She tells my fortune. She guides my life. She is my therapist. She does everything for me,” says Sarah. Margate, with its beach, art scene, Dreamland and roast dinner at Turner Contemporary, has become a firm favourite of hers.
She also raves about The Fordwich Arms in Canterbury and The Sportsman in Seasalter – two Michelinstarred gastropubs – alongside
Sunday lunches and cherries at the Carpenters Arms in the village of Eastling near Faversham.
Born in Beirut, Sarah and her family moved to the US in 2001 in the wake of the South Lebanon conflict. Bullied as a child for the colour of her skin – something which was aggravated due to the impact of 9/11
– she enjoyed trips to the Smithsonian and went on to study American history at university.
Her fascination for history and antiques remains. She loves fireplaces in British homes and lauds the way ancient houses in Kent have been preserved.
With her business partner and friend Sara Burn – a Faversham resident of 17 years – the pair run Sheytan, a jewellery and bodywear business which, they say, prides itself on being a vehicle for creativity and collaboration.
A neighbour provides the prototypes for the brand while Medway Cutters is set to manufacture Sheytan’s packaging.
With reassurance from her beloved Margate witch, Sarah believes the venture will be a success.
“She actually told me that I had a very deep connection to England many, many, many, many lives ago and I was done dirty business-wise here,” Sarah says. “That’s why, in this life, I’ve come back to reclaim it. “It’s been going really well.” However much she may wish to lap up the sunshine, sit peacefully, listen to the birds and admire the neighbourhood cat, there is always something else demanding her attention. Whether it be meetings in London or globetrotting for modelling shoots, Sarah often finds herself back at work before long.
But in this moment, she looks at peace – perhaps not in a location where she or others may ever have expected her to end up, but somewhere just as beautiful in its own way. Sarah’s not the first celebrity to be charmed by Kent – and she won’t be the last.