A SINGLE mum-of-two who juggles looking after her children with a lucrative career as a chief executive, Keily Blair could easily pass as the ultimate inspiration to many women around the world.
The former lawyer turned CEO of the adult content site OnlyFans, 42, has seen her career fly to new levels, advocating for women’s ”choice” over their bodies, jobs and how they decide to make money since taking on the role last year.
But although the porn-friendly platform is often painted as a feminist site for women to get rich and gain sexual agency, OnlyFans is also home to ”dangerous” sex stunts which put vulnerable women at risk.
One of the most notorious cases sent shockwaves around the world when Lily Phillips, 23, bedded 101 men in just one day – and now is on a mission to bonk an astronomical 1,000 fans in 24 hours.
After the ordeal, which was also shared on a YouTube documentary called I Slept with 100 Men in One Day, Lily appeared traumatised – a young woman holding back tears and saying she didn’t think she’d recommend the twisted challenge to anyone.
The controversial stunt received backlash from fellow OnlyFans stars, who called it a form of ”self-harm” and argued it ”sends a message” to other creators that ”pushing yourself to dangerous extremes is normal”, reported Daily Mail.
The sex industry life is in stark contrast from the corporate one of Blair’s, who went from London-based partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP – which specialises in cyber, privacy, and security – to an executive at her former client, OnlyFans.
The single mother-of-two is vocal about women having ”choice” over their own lives, recently arguing in an interview: ”I fundamentally believe that people should be able to make choices about what they do.
”I think as a society, and particularly women, we’ve had a lot of people telling us what we can do, with our bodies, with our jobs, with our money, with our lives. I’ve no interest in that.”
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Blair moved to Britain to study Law and Politics at Oxford Brookes University, before she qualified as a solicitor in 2007.
A cybersecurity and privacy expert, her early career included time at PwC and law firms Forsters and Allen & Overy.
From there, her life really took off, as Blair was the first winner of the Inspirational Women in Law Awards in 2016 – after which she bravely opened up about the struggles of balancing motherhood to daughters, Eden and Bea, with a successful yet demanding career.
”There are things that have happened to me probably uniquely because I’m female,” she said.
”I remember coming back from maternity leave and I remember there was a project being discussed that would involve international travel.
”There was an automatic assumption that I wouldn’t want to go.”
She added: ”I remember going into the managing partner’s office and sitting down and I said, ‘This may be coming from a place of kindness, but do you realise that you just ruled me out of a really interesting job because I’ve just come back from maternity leave because you think I won’t want to spend time away from my baby’.”
In January 2020, Blair joined Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, a London law firm, where she was head of the firm’s cyber, privacy and data innovation practice – with the controversial OnlyFans site among her clients.
After becoming the company’s chief strategy and operations officer, Blair was promoted to CEO in July, 2023.
OnlyFans is a subscription content service based in London.
As of 2023, it is thought to have more than 220million registered users and over three million content creators.
Sex workers charge monthly fees for access to pictures, videos and more.
While popular for porn, the site isn’t exclusively designed with that in mind – anyone who wants to build up a fan base and charge them for it can set one up.
Celebs like Katie Price and Kerry Katona are popular personalities on the platform.
“Whether you’re uploading tutorials, tips, behind-the-scenes footage or just endless selfies, a lot of your followers would be willing to pay for them,” the company states.
For every subscription that’s sold to a viewer, performers get 80 per cent of the cash while OnlyFans gets the rest.
It isn’t limited to adult content, as it has become popular with physical fitness experts and musicians.
She succeeded Amrapali ‘Ami’ Gan, who stepped down to pursue new endeavors after two years at the role, OnlyFans said at the time.
On getting her hands on the position, Blair emphasised the importance of ”choice” for the site’s creators, sating: ”OnlyFans only succeeds when creators succeed.
”It is our mission to make OnlyFans the platform of choice for a diverse range of creators and fans across the world.
”I will continue to put our creators at the heart of every business decision and will provide them with an inclusive, safe, and innovative platform to connect with their fans and monetise their content.”
Chatting to Fortune about her decision to leave a ”professional background”, the mother-of-two said she was prepared to receive a ”negative reaction” – but described the site as a ”UK tech success story”.
Blair, who claimed the top priority of the platform was to provide safety to OnlyFans users, said: ”Everyone assumes it’s sexy content.
”Some of it sexy content and we’re very happy with that, we’re an inclusive platform, and we’re that way for a reason.
”We believe it’s very important for adult content creators to have a safe space, to be able to monetise and also to be able to do that alongside other content creators.”
However, there are some high profile OnlyFans stars who have found themselves the victims of sick and terrifying death threats.
Amongst them is Bonnie Blue, who became an overnight sensation after bragging about sleeping with ”barely legal 18-year-olds”, revealed she gets 300 death threats a day from women and was told she would ”end up in a box” after her sick sex marathons.
The 25-year-old, who had a normal office job before quitting to bonk 158 freshers, said she rakes in a whopping £750,000 a month, which includes posting X-rated content on her OnlyFans account.
Earlier this year, the blonde planned to travel to Australia for a free sex marathon with teenage school leavers, who had to consent to her posting the content the explicit content online.
But Bonnie – who had a very middle-class upbringing – was forced to get in touch with the police after receiving vicious death threats on social media that left her fearing for her life.
”I must get 200 to 300 plus death threats a day,” she told The Sun.
”The one I got this morning was like: ”When you arrive in Surfers Paradise [in Australia], you’re going to be leaving in a box. You should kill yourself before we have to kill you’.
”Wishing someone dead and wishing harm on them? That’s a bad person, not me,” the young star said,
From December 2021 to June 2023, the UK-based company saw its global user base increase to more than a whopping 220million fans and over an astronomical 3million creators.
The site relies solely on subscriptions, pay-per-view events or tips for its online creators, with a large portion of content creators specialising in adult content.
Despite her huge success, Blair has experienced negative reactions since becoming CEO, with one example being a bank rejecting her as a customer for a personal account because of her links to OnlyFans.
”I was an equity partner at a law firm, one of only a handful of women who was an equity partner, and I had a team of people working for me,’ she told the FT.
”That institution would previously have been incredibly keen to have my business. Nothing about me has changed, nothing about my risk profile has changed.”
Financial institutions, fearful of facilitating financial transactions for illegal sex work or crimes like sex trafficking, often turned down those associated with such platforms.
