Like many moms, Lucy Banks struggled to balance working full-time and being a mom. She hated sending her kids to daycare, but when you have bills to pay you do what you have to do — that is, until she found a way to make money and stay home with her kids.
Banks decided to open her OnlyFans account in 2019 as a new divorcee who just wanted to spend more time with her kids. In a recent podcast interview, Banks revealed that her son’s innocent question is what led her to join the subscription-based platform best known for its X-rated content.
“They were in daycare a lot. I had a moment one evening when one of my sons said to me, They’re like, ‘Do we have to go to daycare tomorrow?’ It just broke me.” she said.
So she opened her account and began filming explicit content. At first she kept her face hidden but began revealing more as her account grew.
“I became more and more comfortable, my content became more and more explicit, but it was at a pace that I was comfortable to do it,” Banks said.
“I was like, look, I know I can charge more if I make this content, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
But OnlyFans wasn’t an easy gig. She was working 12-hour days filming content, but she was able to balance her life much more easily than she had before. Plus the money was better — a lot better. She reportedly earned between $1 million and $1.5 million over her four years on the platform.
So why did she ultimately quit? Because one day her oldest son found out about it. The 11-year-old was told about his mom’s account, and he confronted her.
“It wasn’t fair that somebody else told him, but he was so cool about it. I had a conversation with him and he’s like, ‘it’s fine’. People do worse things for money,” Banks said.
“Then he started trying to talk to me about, he’s like, ‘Okay, so how, how much do you charge for your subscribers? Because if we increase your subscription price …’. I was like, ‘Mate, no, I’m not having this conversation with you. ’”
While Banks insists that she only quit because she wasn’t enjoying it anymore, her son’s reaction played a factor.
It wasn’t easy to give up that amount of money, though. Banks called it “golden handcuffs” because that level of income keeps you stuck doing what you may not want to do. For her, it was worth giving it up.
“I’ve got property and mortgages that I have to keep servicing. So it was a hard decision, but it was the right one to make. And, honestly, I haven’t regretted it,” she said.
Despite closing her account, Banks hasn’t left OnlyFans behind entirely. Instead, she created Million Billion Media, a marketing agency for OnlyFans creators. Now she helps new creators get started and make the most of their time on the platform.