Celebrity5 min(s) read
Jessie Cave has opened up about how her Harry Potter co-stars responded after she joined OnlyFans, after finding herself in debt.
The actress, 39, made headlines after she joined the subscription site last year, where her followers get exclusive hair content.
Jessie, who starred as Lavender Brown in the film series, explained during an appearance on the Tea At Four podcast that she first explored the alternative way of making money as a way to help her get out of debt.
However, when she first announced it, many people thought she was joking, given her background as a comedian, and the perception that she must have lots of money, having starred in the Harry Potter franchise.
She explained: "I guess because I’m a mother, and I have four kids and I’ve always just been ‘Earth mother vibes’ on Instagram to then do a complete U-turn into ‘she’s on a porn website now for money and she’s in debt,’ debt is a dirty word, we don’t talk about money.
"And I didn’t actually talk about debt, I wrote on my Substack an essay about why I’m starting OnlyFans and [the media] lifted that directly, even though it was behind a paywall, and the quote went everywhere.
"Nobody teaches you these things about social media so you don’t realize until you’ve made a mistake - I mean it wasn’t a mistake to admit that I’m in debt, I’m actually quite proud now that I was open about money because so many people aren’t.
"People just assume that you’re in a big film and then you’re just rolling in it forever. You’re not. You’re just not, especially if you get the job at 20 and it’s 20 years later. What do people expect, I’m an artist, I don’t earn that much money.
"I’m lucky to get one acting job a year and I do my weird shows, and I write. I would love to make all my living off writing but very few people can, even though my novel was a bestseller! I’ve had huge success in lots of ways, but that doesn’t mean I am safe for money."
Jessie revealed that she did not realize how strongly the public associated OnlyFans with pornography until she joined the site, despite her only creating hair content rather than anything explicit.
She added: "I am not somebody who does research, and that’s part laziness and also I just don’t like knowing that much stuff, because my brain can’t take it.
"So I didn’t do much research about OnlyFans before I joined it, which means, crucially, I did not realize the extent of the association with porn, which has got me in trouble.
"Before I started, I just was in a really bad place emotionally and financially. I had four kids by the time I was 34, I had worked constantly for 18 years and I had run into this wall of ‘how do I keep making money as a weird one-woman show person?’
"Most of my life I write and I draw and I make shows, and I occasionally get an acting job, but that is not enough to support a family of six. I’d just got rejected for yet another job and I was just completely at a loss for what I was going to do anymore.
"My hair is something that people have always commented on, which is lovely, mainly because it’s just weirdly long. I just don’t cut it."
She last had her hair cut in January 2025, a couple of months before joining OnlyFans, and decided she could make a living off her hair when she started making funny Instagram videos plaiting it, which really took off.
Jessie had been using it as a way to draw interest for her one-woman show, but realized she could monetize the videos.
"I was just completely business-minded about it. I was like ‘oh, I could do something with this. I have no other options, what do I have?’", she revealed.
"I did not realize this would be an actual thing, and it has worked so far, but it’s not going to last forever."
With the news generating so many headlines, Jessie revealed how her fellow Harry Potter castmates reacted when the found out.
"Soon after I launched it, I did a Harry Potter convention - I’ve stopped doing Harry Potter conventions since, for loads of reasons, but I won’t go into that - everyone was there.
"It was like Devon [Murray], who plays Seamus [Finnigan], and Evanna [Lynch], who plays Luna [Lovegood], Afshan [Azad, who plays Padma Patil], it was a group of us together. And we were all, in breaks talking about OnlyFans and joking about it, and they were all helping me with ideas.
"Devon in particular was like ‘You need to be careful about leaked photos!’ I was like ‘Devon, will you be in a hair video with me? This would be the best thing ever!’ And I think we did a video there - I just love him, he’s my favorite, I love him so much.
"They were just so supportive. So, so supportive."
Watch the full interview with Jessie Cave on the Tea At Four podcast on YouTube and Spotify, out now.
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