26-year-old Madeleine Wright has been on quite the rollercoaster in her career. In 2019 the blonde beauty was fired from the soccer club, Charlton Women, after her off-field shenanigans made headlines. Her personal Snapchat videos were leaked, and the world saw her inhale balloons at a party and drinking champagne while in her Range Rover—and Charlton was not impressed.
After being let go, Wright said, “I was young, I was messing around with friends, and I didn’t really understand the position I was in and responsibility I had. I loved Charlton, my coaches and team mates so the decision left me heartbroken. When you play for a football team, they become your family so to step away from that was hard.”
Wright struggled to find a new club to accept her, and ended up turning to OnlyFans after social media following grew. She has more than 300,000 Instagram followers currently, and has earned more than £500,000 from OnlyFans since joining. While she hesitated to join initially, worried about the platform’s rather pornographic reputation, but doesn’t regret it.
“My main reason not to do it was the reputation it had. I didn’t want to be associated with that kind of thing,” Wright explained.
‘But when you weigh up the pros and cons, and after doing it for a full year, I know I made the right decision. In the first year I made in the ballpark of half a million pounds. I can’t lie, it has completely changed my life.”
Wright was finally able to live on her own thanks to OnlyFans.
“I was able to get my own place, I have been able to travel the world and have enjoyed a lot of luxurious things.”
Yet when soccer came calling again, she couldn’t say no. The OnlyFans star has signed on to play for Chatham Town Women. The club currently plays in the National League, which is the third tier of women’s football in the UK.
The club wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Welcome, Madelene. We are delighted to confirm the signing of forward Madelene Wright!”
It’s not clear if Wright will be forced to close her OnlyFans account now that she’ll be back on the pitch. As more athletes join OnlyFans, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus in what’s allowed and what isn’t.
For example, British Olympic swimmer Jack Laugher joined the subscription-based platform leading up to the Paris Olympics in 2024 as a way to fund his training. He explained in an interview, “For me, it’s been an absolute lifeline.”
But British rower Kurts Adams Rozentals was banned from competing in his event due to his OnlyFans account earlier this year. Though he was set to compete in the individual canoe slalom earlier this year, Paddle UK, the governing body for his sport, removed him from the World Class Programme, UK Sport’s lottery-funded initiative to help athletes prepare for the Olympics due to “allegations” about his posts on social media.
It seems that every sport, and even every governing body within a sport, has different rules around OnlyFans. It would be nice for the athletes if everyone could get on the same page and either let the athletes use the platform to fund their training or find a way for these athletes to secure funding in other ways.