Drea de Matteo has spoken candidly about turning to OnlyFans at a tough point in her life, sharing that she’s earning more money now than during her huge TV career.

The 52-year-old has been in some of the biggest shows of our time, commanding the screen in Desperate Housewives, the Sopranos and Sons of Anarchy.

Despite having a huge catalog of shows under her belt, work dried up during the global pandemic as she refused to have the Covid vaccine, leaving her fearing for the future.

She almost lost her home before signing up to the adult subscription platform at the suggestion of her children, son Waylon ‘Blackjack’ and daughter Alabama. Her fortunes turned around almost instantly as she was able to secure her financial future, and start her own clothing company.

The streetwear brand, ULTRAFREE, is still going strong today and recently relaunched with a selection of new T-shirts, hoodies, sweaters and hats with political slogans, aimed at trying to ‘make freedom cool again’ – as well as new jewelry offerings.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Drea unpacked her efforts on OnlyFans and lifted the lid on how she has earned more from her pictures and videos on the site than she did appearing on our screens for over a decade.

‘I never got paid a lot to act, that’s the truth. I was always paid the lowest, to a degree, I would say,’ she told us.

‘There wasn’t a lot of money when I first started out with Sopranos. I was a day player, then I became a recurring [character] – they were hard-nosed, the way they negotiated with us. It wasn’t until the end of the Sopranos that I was actually making a normal episodic pay.

‘I left that show and went and did Joey, and that was probably the most decent pay I had because I was on network TV for 21 episodes.

‘FX didn’t really pay me at all [for Sons of Anarchy], that’s a known story … I went and did Desperate Housewives instead, but that was a one-year contract because I didn’t know if I would want to be there, too. So that’s a lower pay scale.

‘I never really made a ton of money, so yes, I made more money on OnlyFans. It’s a true story. I know that sounds crazy but it’s not sustainable money for the long term.’

Drea revealed that the career step ‘got her out of trouble’ and secured ‘money in the bank for the meantime’.

She was in dire straits before signing up for the platform and was worryingly close to losing her home after it went into foreclosure. Drea was unable to sell the property after it flooded, and she was also taking care of her family.

The Joey actress was ‘convinced to take a forbearance’, which she described as a ‘bulls**t lie’, and explained that those she owed sums to ‘wanted all their money and they wanted it in full’.

‘It was so much money that I had to fork up for someone who doesn’t have huge life savings,’ she recalled. ‘So that’s how OnlyFans started. My kids jokingly were like, “Just put your feet up there and let’s save our house”, because we were going to lose the house. It really was the worst time of my life.

‘Did I want to do it? F**k no, I didn’t want to do it. I was totally anonymous. I never anticipated being thrown to the wolves the way I was when it came out.

‘A lot of people were like, “She’s desperate, look at her!” I’m going to sit here right now and tell you [that] desperate times call for desperate measures. 100% and I hope that any of the haters out there that have said s**t like that don’t ever find themselves in the same position I was in.

‘I embraced it, because what was I going to do? At first, I was very nervous because of my kids, and I didn’t understand the site, I didn’t understand the app, I didn’t understand all of the things that come with it. It’s a lot of upkeep. It’s a lot of work to keep up with it, with messaging and all that stuff.

‘That’s how you make money, is messaging and selling your pictures to individuals. But I did find a little community of folks that tune in – because I’ll go live every now and then – they just come and talk to me about politics, and the Sopranos. Sometimes when I’m with other girls that do all the crazy s**t, they say crazy s**t. But for the most part, it’s a fan page.

‘It’s given me the financial freedom to say, “F**k Hollywood” and to create ULTRAFREE and to be outspoken about what really matters to me.’

During the chat, Drea took a moment to clear up reports that she was able to pay off her mortgage in just a few minutes, clarifying that it wasn’t quite true – she instead made what she needed for her real estate company, joking that it was ‘more like 15, maybe even 30 minutes’.

She also shared that she can’t appear on the platform ‘much longer’ as she’s ‘getting old’, but until that day comes, she will continue embracing herself, and the freedom the platform has given her – both physically and financially.

In fact, she teased a ‘really big’ photoshoot planned for October ahead of the US presidential election, suggesting she ‘might actually take everything off for the first time, full on’ in the name of ‘freedom’.

‘I learned that I was much more brave than I ever gave myself credit for,’ she said. ‘To take my life into my own hands. People you know will say, “You just did pornography.” It’s not f**king pornography. There’s pornography on there, for sure. Mine is a fan page.’

‘It’s me in my closet. This is Dre in the closet,’ she laughed. ‘Actually, it’s outside of my closet – I learned from being on OnlyFans that I could come fully out of the closet. I was already into girls at one point in my life, so there wasn’t that kind of coming out of the closet.

‘This was a whole different coming out of the closet and it was the “I don’t give a f**k” closet. I came out of the “I don’t give a f**k closet” in my f**k you suit, which was panties. I’m basically just in my panties all the time.

‘Whether or not that’s going to last… It’s not a career move for me, it was a life vest for me, and that’s what it is right now until I figure out where I want to be, what I want to do.

‘Going back to Hollywood is not really something that interests me. I’d rather be hosting something. I’d rather be talking to real people, not this whole Hollywood thing. So we’ll see what I do next. But ULTRAFREE is the focus for now.’

The clothing collection was born out of the attention Drea received for her OnlyFans account and has become successful in its own right, with new clothes launching recently, and a brand new jewelry line complete with name plate necklaces and gun pendants.

Shedding light on her offering, she proudly added: ‘Just like any streetwear brand, we’ll have different launches. So if you don’t get the first shirts that come out, then you’re s**t out of luck because those will be collectibles at some point.

‘It’s not a regular streetwear line, it’s got a little bit of… people would say political, it’s not really political. I would say that we’re more humanitarian. We’re like hippies for humanity, that’s us.

‘ULTRAFREE is about the truth. It’s anti-censorship. We take the constitution of this country seriously. We never did before, we never really thought about it, we never really had to. But right now, our freedoms are really under attack.

‘Our small way of protesting is creating a T-shirt line.’

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : The 00s TV show that warned Diddy was a ‘monster who liked virgins’

MORE : ‘I lost my job and had to go into hiding after Wife Swap’

MORE : 80s drama series reboot scores perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes