Drea De Matteo Says OnlyFans Saved House, Paid Off Mortgage in Five Minutes

"It saved us," she told The Daily Mail. "OnyFans saved my life, 100 percent. I can't believe I'm saying that, but it really did save us."

The Sopranos alum said that at the time she joined the platform in August 2023, she only had ten dollars in the bank and was on the verge of losing her home. Just five minutes on OnlyFans changed all that.

"They put me into foreclosure and my house had flooded," said de Matteo, "so I was trying to sell the house quickly ... before they took it." At that time, she explained that she'd taken a forbearance to help with mortgage payments, but she couldn't afford what she owed.

On top of that, she said she was grieving the loss of on of her mothers, "and my other mom, who has dementia, had run out of money for her caregiver. I didn't know which way was up."

She quickly learned, though, as her bank balance shot way up once she started posting pictures. "I kept putting more pictures up," she shared. "It was like, holy s--t. In five minutes, I was able to pay back Compass Real Estate, who kept the sale of my house."

On top of that, she's been able to use the money she's made to launch a streetwear brand inspired by her 12-year-old son Waylon called ULTRAFREE. She said the brand is about "making freedom cool again."

"Freedom from anything that makes you feel caged in, whether that is a mental illness or physical illness or an ideology," she continued. "God knows ideologies were pushed forward in the last three years have not helped society."

It all came about because de Matteo was publicly sharing her anti-vaxxer stance, which she says cost her acting work in Hollywood.

"I didn't know this was going to have to be a change of life, you know, all of a sudden that during a time I'm supposed to be relaxing a little bit, that I would have to switch careers and figure new things out because my own industry thinks I'm, you know, a savage," she told Fox News Digital back in September 2023.

"I guess you could say I was a bad girl because I did not follow the rules a couple of years ago. So, I don't want to be at the mercy of mandates or strike or anything like that ever again," she added, referring to the Hollywood strikes happening at the time.

After getting blasted by the media for her stance on the Covid-19 vaccines and mandates, de Matteo was hit again when it was revealed she'd joined OnlyFans. "I got a lot of heat for doing it and it went f--king viral and people went nuts," she told Daily Mail.

She explained to Fox News Digital last year that she wasn't this rich person people thought she was because she was on TV, "so when people make nasty comments about why I would have done that, my response is, 'Damn straight, I hope you're never in the f--king position I'm in. I take care of an entire family and a lot of other people who depend on me.'"

According to de Matteo, she originally intended to use OnlyFans for something different than pictures, with her and her husband contemplating a provocative podcast. "We wanted to put it behind a paywall so to not be destroyed in the media for it," she noted.

"That was what it was going to be originally," she added, "like with him rubbing my feet because you have to add a little something for OnlyFans in there."

Despite her initial reluctance, she now feels empowered by her experiences with OnlyFans. "It feels good to see those photos," she said. On top of that, she said that the photos look better when she's a little heavier, so she gets to carbo loads before a shoot.

"I'm just being an Italian lady in the world, eating spaghetti and pasta and steak," she explained. "You want your boobs to be big and your butt to be big. Otherwise, the photos are a snooze fest!"