Relationships4 min(s) read
Common sex act leaves couples divided as people cannot decide whether it counts as cheating
A common sexual behavior has sparked debate among couples, with many struggling to agree on whether it should be considered cheating.
What counts as cheating has never been a simple question, and in the era of digital relationships, the boundaries are more complex than ever.
For many years, couples have argued over everything from adult movies to explicit magazines hidden in drawers.
But as intimacy increasingly moves online, the debate has shifted, and now, one subscription-based platform is at the center of a new relationship fault line: OnlyFans.
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Poll Results Reveal A Divide Between Couples
The controversy isn’t about creating content on the subscription-based platform.
Instead, it's about whether subscribing to an OnlyFans creator and paying for exclusive adult content counts as infidelity within a committed relationship.
News.com.au surveyed 1,870 people to find out where the public stands on the issue and the responses were far from unanimous.
According to the poll, 56 percent of women said that if their partner subscribes to an OnlyFans creator, it is “definitely cheating". Only 38 percent of men agreed.
Nearly half of men, 48 percent, said it depends on the nature of the interactions involved, a view shared by 36 percent of women.
Meanwhile, just 9 percent of women and 15 percent of men felt it was completely normal behavior for someone in a relationship to subscribe to and interact with OnlyFans creators.
Why OnlyFans Feels Different
Part of the debate lies in how the platform operates. Unlike traditional pornography, OnlyFans allows direct messaging between subscribers and creators, and those exchanges can often be explicit and personalized.
For many, that interaction shifts the act from passive viewing to something more intimate.
One woman who took part in the discussion put it bluntly: "If you're paying for something, interacting and have a particular person of interest, that's definitely cheating."
Her friend agreed, adding that how much money is spent can also influence how serious the betrayal feels.
Another man described subscribing to an OnlyFans account while in a relationship as flat-out disrespectful. "If I was with someone for say five years, I'd be like, 'what's going on here?'" he said. "That would be a big fight. Whereas with someone new? Bye."
Still, not everyone sees it that way, as two other men contended that subscribing to an OnlyFans creator isn’t comparable to a physical affair and shouldn’t be treated the same.
"It Was A Huge Breach Of My Trust"
For Maddi Miller from Western Australia, the debate isn’t theoretical.
Miller, who works as an OnlyFans creator herself, ended her relationship after discovering her boyfriend was scrolling through x-rated content in bed beside her, including accounts of women she personally knew.
“It was a huge breach of my trust,” she told the outlet. “I wouldn’t be asking his mates for nudes. It’s the same thing. It’s betrayal.”
For her, the problem wasn’t necessarily the content itself, but the secrecy. “If my ex had asked to watch something together or told me he was curious, we could’ve talked about it," she said.
The creator said the incident left a lasting impact on her, such as creating a lot of "self-doubt" in her relationships.