Religious OnlyFans stars are making millions. But they have faced consequences, from kids kicked out
- Religious OnlyFans creators are making millions of dollars from adult content each year.
- But they also risk public shaming and scandal as a result of their work on the platform.
- One OnlyFans star said her children were expelled from their Catholic school because of her account.
Growing up in Sacramento, California, religion didn't play a significant role in Crystal Jackson's life. But after meeting her husband in 2001, she converted to Catholicism, and the couple sent their three sons to Sacred Heart Parish School, a private elementary school in the city dedicated to the "development of healthy minds, bodies, and souls."
Several years passed, and the Jacksons became deeply involved in the school community. Crystal served as Sacred Heart's second-grade room mom and ran the school's annual Crab Feed dinners — a fundraising tradition in many Catholic schools. But in February 2021, the Jacksons were rocked by controversy when Sacred Heart expelled the couple's sons from school following complaints from several parents about the adult content on Jackson's OnlyFans page, which she'd started about a year and a half earlier.
"I was kind of devastated," Jackson said. "Why would you take it out on children?"
Sacred Heart did not reply to a request for comment from Insider.
Jackson said her family was also harassed with text messages and calls from members of the local community.
"You're an embarrassment," one text read. "You should leave."
Jackson said their home was vandalized, their lawn littered with random items. She said members of the Sacred Heart community sent photos from her OnlyFans page to other Catholic schools up to 30 miles away, ostensibly to thwart the Jacksons' chances of enrolling their sons there.
The family ultimately moved to another home 10 minutes away and enrolled their children in public school instead.
Jackson isn't the only creator who has experienced a conflict between their religion and the adult content they post on OnlyFans. Insider spoke with four OnlyFans creators who have been part of devout Christian communities, some of whom remain religious and others who have had to reckon with their faith. Sometimes acting in opposition to the teachings of their churches, these women have tried to balance making money, expressing their sexuality, and their own personal relationship to faith.
Over the past two years, OnlyFans — the subscription content platform popular for its adult content — has exploded in popularity. It has paid out over $5 billion to its more than 2 million creators, providing a lucrative income to a number of people during the instability of the pandemic.
Jackson's OnlyFans page has become so successful that she earned more than $2 million in 2021 before taxes, according to documentation reviewed by Insider.
But for Jackson, and other religious OnlyFans creators who Insider spoke with, the money has come at a cost. They said they had faced backlash from their communities, endangering careers, friends, and family.
While Christianity's general narrative around sex work is one of repentance and forgiveness, devout communities can often be intolerant of those who continue to make adult content.
"We have the Virgin who appears, and then we have Mary Magdalene, who is the 'penitent prostitute,' so either way, you have this singular definition in Christianity of what women's sexuality can be," said Philip Picardi, a master's student at Harvard Divinity School and the host of the podcast "Unholier Than Thou."
"It is harder to reconcile, then, how a woman can be sexual and be holy," he added. "Repent and ask for forgiveness, or get a new job."
"In general, this kind of work has been happening since the beginning of time and is not going anywhere," said Nita Marie, a OnlyFans creator who identifies as a nondenominational Christian. "We were made as sexual creatures, the expectations the church has around sexuality are unrealistic."
'God really called me to do OnlyFans': The platform has been a windfall for some creators, who make as much as $100,000 a month
Growing up in a family that belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Daisy May, one of six kids, wore skirts past her knees and went to church five days a week. She was taught which garments would make her chest appear flatter — for modesty's sake — and that tank tops were forbidden.
"Sex is bad," she said she was told, plain and simple. "Being sexual is only to replenish the earth."
Today, Daisy May takes a very different approach to sexuality — and to religion.
"My current relationship with religion is: there is no relationship," she said.
May started her OnlyFans page during the pandemic, when her business as a consultant started to slow down. A friend, who is also a former member of her church, suggested she try out the platform.
"It blew my mind," May said of learning how much money could be made on OnlyFans, and of learning that women she'd known to be from religious backgrounds were on the platform.
The OnlyFans account May runs has a Christian sensibility — think slapping with Bibles and references to one's "Sunday best." Part kink and part satire, the channel has more than 15,000 fans and can earn as much as $9,500 in a week on OnlyFans, according to documentation reviewed by Insider.
But she still hasn't totally come to terms with her career.
"When I stop and think about the moment I'm living in, I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. "I never thought I'd be here."
While her mother knows about her new gig — May said her mom was so shocked when she found out she had to pull off the road — her father and husband's family do not.
"If he found out, I have no idea what he'd think," she said of her father. "He'd be upset. He'd be more disappointed."
In order to keep the profession under wraps — both from the religious community some of her family is still a part of and from her children — she conducts all of her OnlyFans business in a separate apartment and using a second phone.
Like May, Marie also came to OnlyFans at a time when she was experiencing financial difficulties. In 2019, after splitting with her husband of many years, she said she was a single mom who qualified for food stamps and had to borrow cash from her boyfriend for gas.
At the same time, Marie, who had long considered herself a nondenominational Christian, was discovering a new side of herself. She and her ex-husband hadn't had sex for seven years, she said, and out of the relationship, she found herself having a renewed desire to explore her sexuality.
"God really called me to do OnlyFans," Marie said. "He kept telling me he wanted me to love and celebrate my sexuality."
She points to the timing as providence: Six months after joining OnlyFans, the pandemic hit, and OnlyFans blew up. She went from making $30,000 a month to $100,000 a month — or more — by July 2020, according to documentation reviewed by Insider.
From posting in secrecy to losing friendships, religious OnlyFans creators have faced community backlash
While their work on OnlyFans has provided financial support, the creators Insider spoke with had often experienced some level of conflict between their religion and their adult content.
Scarlet James, a Catholic OnlyFans creator living in Houston, said she'd seen some friendships fall by the wayside because of her work.
"I did have a few experiences with other friends … that have absolutely stopped talking to me," James said. "But you know, those aren't really friends, right?"
Marie said her OnlyFans led to a demotion of sorts at her day job at the multilevel marketing cosmetics brand Mary Kay.
The company is not officially a Christian organization, but urges its employees to, as Mary Kay herself wrote, put "God first, family second, and career third." With Marie's new OnlyFans career, she said was no longer allowed to lead certain events and training.
Mary Kay did not reply to a request for comment from Insider.
"I ended up pushing a lot of buttons," Marie said.
Marie said her social-media pages also became flooded with comments from religious coworkers, former friends, and strangers.
"Enjoy all of that money you are making off your sex work now … because in eternity your money is worth nothing and means nothing to God," one commenter wrote on one of her YouTube videos. "All porn is of Satan."
Balancing religion — or lack thereof — and sexuality
Their work on OnlyFans has also caused some creators to reevaluate their personal faith.
"There was a time, people were being so judgy, I wanted to turn my back on Christianity completely," Marie said. "I did some soul searching … I can't turn my back on my own faith because someone else turned their back on me."
May had left her church before she joined OnlyFans, and said she's happy she did, in part because it has allowed her to live free of guilt about sexuality.
"I'm grateful I'm not bound by the chains of religion anymore, that I don't feel guilty about things in life that religion teaches you to feel guilty about," she said.
For James, reconciling her sexuality, her career, and her personal faith has been a relatively seamless process.
"Religious people will say, you know, women's places are in the home, right?" James said. "I completely agree. [OnlyFans] provides a woman the ability to do that."
OnlyFans has also brought James and her husband closer together, she said. He not only approves of her work, but also helps draft the scripts and lines she uses for her videos.
"He's like, I'm a guy — I know what they want to hear," said James, who added that their sex life couldn't be better since she joined OnlyFans. "It has actually enhanced our love. It's really fun."
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