SARAH Jayne Dunn was thrown into a media whirlwind after walking away from her seemingly dream acting job two years ago.
After more than two decades on Channel 4 series Hollyoaks, she was issued an ultimatum by show bosses: quit OnlyFans, an adult subscription site where she was selling racy shots, or be axed.
Sarah, 42, refused to close her account - and blasted uptight bosses for “blatant hypocrisy” claiming her new content was no different from the lads’ magazine and calendar shoots she was asked to do while on the soap.
Speaking to Fabulous for Shamed, a new YouTube series which explores the effects of trolling on six famous women, she says: “I’d been sexualised and been made an object of sexual desire for my entire adult life.
“To then be told I couldn't do it on my own terms? That was really the bit that stung because it just didn't make sense to me.”
She adds: “I had spent years going on set, being put in short skirts and having a camera pan up and, you know, almost upskirt me and things like that.
“And then you’d have directors manhandling you and feeling uncomfortable… to be told that I couldn't take control myself was the biggest kick in the teeth.”
Sarah’s departure from Hollyoaks in 2021 was in part down to a mystery co-star who logged a formal complaint.
Since Sarah’s success, soap bosses have changed actors’ contracts to ban them from launching their own lucrative OnlyFans accounts.
Hollyoaks bosses argued the raunchy content on OnlyFans, which requires users to be 18 or over, didn’t align with the soap’s young audience.
But Sarah, who played Mandy Richardson from 1996 to 2021, vehemently disagrees.
She says: “I did my first lads’ mag, it was FHM or something like that, aged 18. Then we did them quite a lot. I actually loved doing those shoots.
I'd spent years being put in short skirts and having a camera pan up and, you know, almost upskirt me
Sarah Jayne Dunn
“You were made to look amazing but that came with airbrushing. I look back at those pictures now and go, ‘I never looked like that’.
“I remember seeing one picture of myself and, I don't have very big boobs, but I remember seeing this photo shoot and my boobs had been made bigger and pointer. That was not me.”
She adds: “I had no control over it. It was just taken out of our hands. We were being used as currency for the show.
“We got nothing in return apart from, obviously, visiting a nice location and things like that. Looking back, I wish I had been stronger and in a better position to go, ‘actually, I'm not okay with this.’”
Up until 2011, Hollyoaks was cashing in on its sexy cast by releasing annual Hollyoaks Babes and Hunks calendars.
Sarah says this used to cause “tension” between the crew.
She says: “There was this whole pool of beautiful people and it was almost like a competition. It was like a popularity contest. There was cattiness and bitchiness.
“Luckily, I had a really close knit group of friends that I'm still friends with today, so I feel like that saved me.
“Shooting the calendars became a really big thing. If you didn't make the cover of the calendar then you’d think something was wrong with you or you're not good enough. I think it did cause tension. We were pitted against each other.”
Sarah says she wasn’t paid extra for shoots but feared the consequences of turning them down.
There was this whole pool of beautiful people... there was cattiness and bitchiness
Sarah Jayne Dunn
She says: “You thought, ‘I better not say no, because then they'll give it to that person’. You were made to feel replaceable. That in itself makes you on edge.
“The people picking up those magazines thought we looked perfect. We didn't. We were just young girls.”
At the turn of the Millennium, Hollyoaks was pulling in more than four million viewers per episode.
But it has struggled to maintain its once-loyal fan base and last year moved from Channel 4 to E4.
It also airs on YouTube in a bid to target the soap’s younger demographic.
While money was the biggest motivator for Sarah to leave Hollyoaks, she refuses to reveal how much she earns from OnlyFans.
But it is not hard to imagine she is teetering on becoming a millionaire after it was reported that she raked in £700,000 in the year after being axed from her £120,000 acting job.
She says: “People have this preconception of OnlyFans but they don't know what it is.
“There's tons of content on the platform of different genres. Of course there is explicit content. That is why it is protected.”
Overall, Sarah has received “really positive feedback” about her career move but trolls have waded in - with many focusing on her age and the fact she is a mother to son Stanley.
As women, we get written off from age 30, so I think turning 40 is a really pivotal moment
Sarah Jayne Dunn
She says: “One of the comments that came up the most was ‘she’s a mother’. I think a lot of this plays into what we've been conditioned to feel about being a woman.
“I tick a few boxes now: I'm a woman, I'm a mother and I'm over 40. I cannot be sexy because I'm a mother and I'm over 40. How dare I?
“How dare I expose my body? How dare I do that and be okay with that? How dare my family accept that? How dare my husband be all right with it.
“It’s what we've been told that we can't do. The fact I am standing up and doing it and I am enjoying it and I am successful with it, I think it just annoys people.”
Sarah insists she would never venture into X-rated content and has the full support of her husband of six years, Jonathan Smith.
Reading out some of the social media criticism she’s faced, it ranges from “her family must be embarrassed” to “desperate”, “cheap”, “nasty”, “those pictures are embarrassing” and “mid-life crisis”.
She says: “It doesn't surprise me. But it’s a misunderstanding - of the platform and what my content is. People assume that OnlyFans is just porn, but it's not not, my content isn't explicit.”
Despite how happy she is with her choices now, Sarah does have one major regret.
She says: “Trolls told me that I’ll regret it but I'm over two years down the line with OnlyFans now and I have zero regrets.
“Actually, that’s wrong, I do have one regret: I wish I'd started it sooner!”
Sarah claims OnlyFans has improved all facets of her life.
She says: “I think my confidence has grown since turning 40. As women, we get written off from age 30, so I think turning 40 is a really pivotal moment.
“I'm loving my forties. I don't care what anyone else thinks anymore. I’m not hurting anyone. I am doing life on my terms now and what's right for me and my family.
“That’s been life changing. Who knows? I might do OnlyFans forever.”
