‘S**t’: OnlyFans stripper’s unexpected turnaround

He was once a popular face on OnlyFans and a well-known stripper, now Ash Edelman has his sights set on something no one expected.

Aussie stripper and OnlyFans content creator Ash Edelman has done a complete 180.

The former bodybuilder has trained to be a Buddhist monk in Thailand and is now based in Dubai working as a mindset, breathwork and meditation coach.

“I am a big giant bloke with tattoos who spent years bodybuilding, stripping, doing OnlyFans and taking steroids,” Edelman told Confidential.

Australian personal trainer Ash Edelman when he was a member of British male troupe, Forbidden Nights.

“What I am doing now is completely the opposite. You see me in my robes, it is going to drag attention.

“People would watch me on OnlyFans and stripping because they wanted to see me with my d*** out because it gets them off. That is not helping anyone, that was just putting money in my pocket and making me feel like s*** where now I am able to share content and it is changing people’s lives for the better.”

From Stripper to Monk with some bodybuilding in between, Aussie Ash Edelman. Picture: Supplied

From Stripper to Monk with some bodybuilding in between, Aussie Ash Edelman. Picture: Supplied

Edelman first came on to Confidential’s radar in 2015, when he was based in London and appeared as a contestant on the Britain’s Got Talent reality TV show as part of the Forbidden Nights male strip troupe.

The now 35-year-old grew up in Manly and moved to the UK at the end of 2014 on a two year visa.

His speciality in Forbidden Nights was ‘fire twirling’.

Supplied images of Australian bodybuilder and performer Ash Edelman in Forbidden Nights.,

At the end of 2023, Edelman hit a low point in life and travelled to iMonastery in Chiang Mai to learn to become a monk.

“I had a dark night of the soul at the end of 2023 where I realised stripping wasn’t doing it for me,” he explained.

“I was taking everyone’s energy, I was going back to drugs and drinking and sleeping around and it just wasn’t serving me.”

Edelman has no regrets though.

“It was all building me up to the point where I am now. It gave me a good understanding of people, people’s fetishes, and to be very accepting of everyone.

“Bodybuilding, I was prepping myself for 20 weeks to stand on stage next to 30 or 40 people to be judged by people I don’t know to tell me if I am good enough.
“With stripping, I had to learn to be confident within myself because I wasn’t a strong dancer.”

From Stripper to Monk with some bodybuilding in between, Aussie Ash Edelman.

Ultimately, Edelman decided not to continue practising as a monk but will travel back to iMonastery each year to reconnect.

Supplied images of Australian bodybuilder and performer Ash Edelman in Forbidden Nights.,

From Stripper to Monk with some bodybuilding in between, Aussie Ash Edelman. Picture: Supplied

“You can’t listen to music, you can’t watch movies, you can’t sing, you can’t dance, you can’t touch a woman, you can’t have a wife or a family, all of these sorts of things.

“I realised living as a Theravada Buddhist monk for me long term wasn’t going to be the thing because I couldn’t stay living in a monastery following the 227 Precepts that haven’t changed in the last two-and-a-half-thousand years.”

Edelman said his message was one of spirituality, not religion.

“And plus, I want to be married, I want to have a family.”