Has actually a small chate and see all my alluring selfies
Patricia Nilsson
What happened? We e from. They’re the most miscast porn barons you can imagine. And yet they somehow confirmed – power in porn is all about payments.
Alex Barker
We set out to follow OnlyFans to its source, and it brought us to a big-gated house on the south coast of England – the home of Dannii Harwood. Dannii was the very first creator to join OnlyFans when it launched.
Dannii Harwood
Hi everyone, my name’s Dannii. Welcome to my OnlyFans pagee and join me. And let’s have some fun, boys. (kiss sound)
Alex Barker
But before we get to that part of the story, we have to tell you how she first met Tim Stokely. The mind behind OnlyFans.
Alex Barker
It all started about 12 years ago. Dannii was in her late twenties, making a living as a glamour model. And one day, a man called Tim walked into her life with a madcap plan to transform her into Goddess Danielle.
Dannii Harwood
(laughs) He contacted me for a photo shoot, having seen me on TV, and he turned up in a Savile Row suit with a briefcase and a copy of the Financial Times under his arm. Just a bit. “Who is this guy?”
Patricia Nilsson
Tim was carrying a Financial Times because his father was a banker, his brother was a banker, and Tim may have become a banker too, if he didn’t have other interests he wanted to pursue. He was starting a new business, a fetish site called Glam Worship.
Dannii Harwood
He sort of looked like he was just about to go for a board meeting – not a photo shoot. He was young, a fairly good-looking guy and just very smart and very well-spoken. And he’s like, “Okay, Dannii, if you just like uhm to sit over there and uhm, he’s like, just look at the camera.” He was so underprepared. He was so nervous.
Alex Barker
This was Tim’s first shoot for Glam Worship. Dannii was the first model. He used his briefcase as a camera stand. And here’s the extraordinary part, the origins of OnlyFans can be traced straight back to the kink the website served – the fetish for financial domination. Out of the photo shoot would emerge Goddess Danielle. Her page told visitors it was the luckiest day of their pathetic existence.
Dannii Harwood
Girls would talk about financially dominating men. That’s what the fetish was. So the woman is in charge, and therefore they should give their money to the woman. And because they’re not worthy of that money.
Patricia Nilsson
Financial domination. The art of the findom is not something we have made up for a Financial Times podcast about money and porn, we promise.
Hmmm by now
Dannii Harwood
Hello slaves. Well, you’ve probably been watching me for quite a while now, haven’t you? Seeing me grow from strength to strength. I have lots of loyal, loyal followers. Lots of loyal, submissives.
Patricia Nilsson
Some people will literally pay for the thrill of becoming a financial slave. Tim would script scenarios for Dannii to perform to her fans or paypets.
Alex Barker
Dannii’s financial slaves never actually handed over all their money, even if they wanted to, they probably couldn’t. The tech was still clunky, almost hacked together. Dannii’s paypets could buy her stuff from an Amazon wish list or send checks to a numbered postbox. But the paypets could never get Goddess Danielle’s personal have a glimpse at the weblink attention. They couldn’t ask for her custom videos or directly fill her bank account with money.