Drea de Matteo says her OnlyFans account was never originally supposed to become the kind of page most people associate with the subscription platform.
The Sopranos actress says she initially created the account as a place to launch a podcast, believing a paywall would give her more freedom to discuss subjects she worried could be censored elsewhere. That plan changed as her financial situation became increasingly urgent.
De Matteo says her home was approaching foreclosure after it flooded, making a quick sale difficult. After returning from a spontaneous trip to Lake Tahoe with her family, she posted a bikini photograph and says the response was immediate.
The actress has previously credited OnlyFans with saving her home, but her new appearance on Jamie Kennedy’s Hate to Break It to Ya podcast revisits how a page created as a placeholder for another project became an income stream she now describes as both practical and an assertion of independence.
The OnlyFans Page Was Originally a Placeholder for a Podcast
De Matteo told Entertainment Weekly that she initially intended to use OnlyFans to host a podcast because she worried about being censored while discussing subjects she wanted to explore. “Honestly, we were going to use the OnlyFans platform to start a podcast,” she said, explaining that she set up the account as a placeholder in August 2023.
At the same time, her finances were deteriorating. De Matteo said foreclosure was approaching and her house had flooded, preventing her from selling it quickly. She has also said that her opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates hurt her acting career and led to her being dropped by her agent, an account she has repeated in multiple interviews about that period.
De Matteo said she spontaneously took her family to Lake Tahoe. When they returned, her children suggested she try posting feet photos on the dormant OnlyFans account. She chose a different picture instead.
One Bikini Photo Helped Her Pay a $75,000 Lien
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De Matteo said she posted a bikini photograph and watched the account begin generating money almost immediately. “Within 75 minutes the lien was paid,” she told Kennedy. She said the page has continued bringing in tens of thousands of dollars during some months.
Her account in 2024, however, used a different timeframe. A Variety report quoted de Matteo saying that within “five minutes” of starting the page she had earned enough to repay Compass, the real-estate company involved in the sale of her home.
She told Kennedy that the OnlyFans page became “almost like a political statement” because it demonstrated that she did not have to depend entirely on traditional entertainment companies for work. The income also helped finance projects she wanted to control herself, including her ULTRAFREE podcast and apparel business.
She Says ‘The Sopranos’ Never Made Her as Rich as People Assume
Part of the surprise surrounding her financial problems, de Matteo said, comes from the assumption that playing Adriana La Cerva on one of television’s most celebrated shows must have left her financially set for life.
She rejected that idea during the Kennedy interview, saying she had enough money to live but had generally viewed acting as work she could return to whenever she needed to replenish her finances. “People think I’m made of f—ing money,” she said, adding that she actually lives a relatively ordinary life.