Harry Potter movie star Jessie Cave has said it was “embarrassing” to announce she had launched an OnlyFans account to pay her family’s bills, though reportedly earned £15,000 (around $20,000) in a single day.
The 39-year-old portrayed Lavender Brown in the final three Harry Potter movies, and has since featured in numerous TV projects while exploring a career in standup comedy. Last year, however, Cave began making very different content via a safe-for-work OnlyFans account: images and videos that cater to a niche fetish audience interested in women with long hair.
At the time, Cave explained the decision was both empowering and something driven by a need to financially support her young family of four. 18 months later, Cave has said she’s now earned more money via the platform than in her entire acting career.
“People just assume I’m rich and I have loads of money and no I don’t,” Cave explained on U.K. talk show This Morning. “It was a small-ish part and it was 20 years ago.
“So it was embarrassing,” she continued, “because on a certain level, I would have really liked to get a job. But you know what it’s like, you have kids. It costs so much for childcare.”
Cave now regularly posts content to OnlyFans where she can be seen brushing and styling her hair in ASMR-style videos. But it’s not all been plain sailing: Cave previously said she had experienced stigma for publishing on the platform, which is typically used to host adult content. Indeed, Cave has reported being banned from appearing at a Harry Potter convention for being active on OnlyFans.
Other stars have also taken to OnlyFans for financial support without posting explicit content, including singers Lily Allen and Kate Nash, both of whom inspired Cave to make the leap herself.
“It really has saved me,” Cave concluded, saying that she began to repay money she’d lost on an Edinburgh Fringe comedy show that had not been financially successful, but was now able to support her children as they go to school.
“This is how I’m making a living as an artist which… I want to have less shame about it,” she added. “I want other people who do weird art like me, I want them to know that there is some way of still making [it].”
Earlier this month, 52-year-old American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth revealed she earned $1 million on OnlyFans within nine days after launching her profile on the platform in April. Elizabeth, famous for playing foreign exchange student Nadia in the 1999 teen comedy, promised to display “the side of me that doesn’t make it into movies.”
Image credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
