Drea de Matteo says her OnlyFans account “saved” her when she was nearly homeless with only $10 left in her bank account.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Drea, best known for playing Adriana La Cerva on The Sopranos, revealed she had been able to pay off her mortgage in a mere five minutes after creating the account.
“OnlyFans saved my life, 100 percent,” Drea told the outlet in a story that was published on Tuesday. “I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it really did save us.”
The Desperate Housewives actor said she initially “didn’t want to do it,” but the decision came while she was out of work due to her stance against Covid-19 vaccine mandates, which made booking jobs in Hollywood challenging.
“They put me into foreclosure and my house had flooded, so I was trying to sell the house quickly. I wanted to try and sell it before they took it,” Drea explained.
“At the same time, I lost my mum, and my other mum, who has dementia, had run out of money for her caregiver. I didn’t know which way was up.”
Drea then revealed that she originally wanted to “do a podcast on [OnlyFans] that was controversial” with her partner, Robby Staebler.
Noting that she was going to show Robby “rubbing [her] feet,” she explained: “You have to add a little something for OnlyFans in there.”
But after opting to post some racy photos on the platform instead, her financial woes began looking up.
“I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ In five minutes, I was able to pay back Compass Real Estate who kept the sale of my house,” she said of first joining OnlyFans. “I did it, but I didn’t want to do it. I got a lot of heat for doing it and it went fucking viral and people went nuts.”
Drea went on to shut down anyone who criticised her decision to join OnlyFans.
“Anybody that wants to condemn me and put me down, go for it. I just hope you never find yourself in the position I was in to take care of two little kids,” she said.
Speaking to Fox News back in September, Drea opened up about pivoting to OnlyFans after her agent dropped her, adding she should’ve thought of the idea “sooner”.
“I know some people have said some nasty things about me having joined OnlyFans,” Drea said at the time. “But, you know, the way we see it in this house is mummy’s a warrior, not accepting defeat…
“I figured, ‘OK, so everybody’s in their underwear and being sexy on Instagram and I don’t do that, but I can do that and get paid for it’…I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner.”