OnlyFans has taken off since Covid, with more people prepared to use their bodies for money

Adults only subscriber site OnlyFans took off during lockdowns. And it’s not just former MAFS stars who are cashing in on the raunchy platform.

Former racing car driver Renee Gracie has become a millionaire on OnlyFans.

The face of the sex work industry is changing as people flock to the adult site OnlyFans to become self-employed content creators.

Owned by Tim Stokely, OnlyFans is used by around 170 million people and has exponentially swelled in popularity since lockdown first hit the globe in 2020.

The X-rated site works on a subscription basis, with patrons typically paying between $5 and $35 by the month to access the content of a particular creator.

The average monthly income for OnlyFans creators sits at a pale $220 per month, but at the top end of creators – such as model and ex-fiancee of Rob Kardashian, Blac Chyna – there are blistering wages reaching up to $28 million per month.

As face-to-face venues like strip clubs closed during the pandemic, many sex workers and dancers found themselves without income and countless other Aussies found themselves on reduced wages.

It was then OnlyFans emerged as the most popular platform to merge sex work and social media, exploding from around 7.5 million users in 2019 to more than 85 million users in 2022.

Shout-outs for the site from globally renowned celebrities – including Beyoncé and Cardi B – have helped to propel the adult platform into fame and to date, over 7000 new creators join OnlyFans daily.

Ex Supercar driver Renee Gracie.

A key reason for the growth of OnlyFans is its user policy; it is one of the very few platforms without a ban on nudity and explicit content, making it a popular choice for both amateur and professional sex workers.

Lockdowns across the world correlated with a spike in people creating their own amateur pornography, with entire cities stuck at home substituting screens for physical intimacy.

Insiders say the combination of loneliness, financial struggle and boredom prompted millions of individuals to begin either creating or consuming OnlyFans content during lockdown – and for those with an already wide reach via social media, the opportunity to monetise this.

Among them is Renee Gracie, a former motor car racing driver turned OnlyFans star.

Gracie joined the platform in November 2019 and has since become a self-made multi-millionaire, raking in tens-of-thousands of dollars within 24 hours of signing up.

“I wanted a fresh start and I was ready for something different,” she said.

“It has changed my life dramatically.

“When I was working other jobs, my salary in a whole year wasn’t what I’m making in a month now.”

She says women can sign up to OnlyFans for myriad reasons, from single mums needing to make ends meet through to recently-single women wanting a confidence boost.

Gracie is no stranger to bizarre requests from her adoring subscribers, from “farting requests” through to “licking armpits” – but maintains her line of work is far superior to the “toxic workplaces” she experienced as a woman in motorsports.

“No one is normal.

“Everyone has their own weird thing,” she said.

Former MAFS bride Jessika Power says she’s “just doing what I’m comfortable doing and obviously people are liking it”.

In the last two years the platform has particularly caught the eye of numerous reality TV stars, with several participants from the popular TV show Married At First Sight signing up to get their gear off behind a paywall.

Gracie encouraged the flood of reality stars to OnlyFans and said if it was easy money for them, “why wouldn’t they?”

“Whether they stick to it, or not, and work hard is completely up to them, but it is a very easy way to completely monetise and utilise a fanbase that you basically get overnight on a reality TV show.”

After the conclusion of their seasons, many ex-contestants have signed up to the platform to sell explicit content – including ‘villains’ of the show, Olivia Frazer and Ines Basic.

With such vast social media followings, many MAFS alumni have the capacity to pull in enormous crowds and subscriber numbers virtually overnight – and therefore, can exponentially multiply their incomes overnight, too.

However, the lucrative appeal of the industry has attracted Aussies from all walks of life – from previously unknown punters through to MAFS stars living in the public eye.

Arguably the most controversial of the OnlyFans MAFS crew is Olivia Frazer, who shocked viewers during her season by leaking the nude photos of a fellow contestant, Domenica Calarco – and then started up her own OnlyFans page after the show had aired.

Frazer confirmed during an Instagram Q&A in July 2022 that only weeks after launching the page, she had a whopping 2900 subscribers.

With a subscription rate of $14.99, Frazer therefore has a weekly income surpassing $40,000.

Potentially the most successful of MAFS-to-OnlyFans creators is Jessika Power, who finished with the reality TV show in 2019 and began her foray onto the adult site in August 2021.

Ms Power told the Herald Sun in August 2021 she made an eye-watering $50,000 in five days after signing up, despite not selling any content that is classified as ‘X-rated’.

“I am just doing what I am comfortable doing and obviously people are liking it,” she said.

“It is more explicit content than what is on my Instagram but still classy and fun.”

Another member of the OnlyFans hustle is Ines Basic from the sixth season of MAFS – known for her affair with Sam Ball.

MAFS stars Olivia Frazer and Jackson Lonie are now on OnlyFans. Picture: Supplied

Ms Basic gained notoriety during her season for the salacious behaviour she and Mr Ball elicited, and after the season aired she turned to influencing to capitalise on her audience.

However, like many others, she joined OnlyFans to make money when other work commitments were cancelled due to various lockdowns.

In July 2021, Ms Basic revealed she had earned $80,000 in less than one month of posting on the platform and if the trajectory of her earnings maintains, she will stand to make over $1 million in a year.

Kevin Mack, chief executive of Australian Exhibition Group – which runs the annual Sexpo – told News Corp in 2021 that for many, OnlyFans began as a side hustle but is now sustainable as a full time job.

“So many people have been utilising the OnlyFans platform that it has started to become widespread – it’s seeping into wider Australia,” Mr Mack said.

“I had one contractor who was on OnlyFans with his wife and it was their sole income to pay the rent and buy food for their kids.

“These were two people who were not involved in the sex industry and that conversation really struck me, because I started to realise it was really common for stay at home mums or people with white collar jobs to utilise the platform for extra income.”

He said the sudden popularity of OnlyFans was helping to shift the stigma around sex work as well as highlight the discrimination against the industry by other social media platforms.

However, some former sex workers are concerned that the often opulent lifestyles posted on social media by top OnlyFans creators ‘glamorises’ the industry, and does not offer a true insight into the mental, emotional and physical effort that goes into a career in sex work.

Pop singer and former stripper Peach PRC said: “I think we are so focused on trying to destigmatise it that I think we forget there is a lot of really damaging things that come with it for young girls.”

Jessika Power told the Herald Sun in August 2021 she made an eye-watering $50,000 in five days after signing up.

A BBC investigation found in 2021 that children were selling explicit material of themselves via OnlyFans, with children setting up fake identifications to create their own accounts.

The investigation found the lure of a high income was what attracted most minors to the sex industry, but the desire for money was paired with naivety or apathy about child exploitation laws.

A report from a site for parents trying to keep their children safe online, Internet Matters, found the likelihood of a child sending an explicit image more than doubles between the ages of 14 and 15.

The site advices parents to encourage open and honest conversation with their teens and teach them about the consequences of sharing sexual content, online grooming, blackmail and the laws surrounding child exploitation.