Maitland Ward played redhead Rachel McGuire on the hit ABC series Boy Meets World in the 90s. Now she is among the highest-paid porn stars in the world.
“I make so much more money. I have so much more control, and I am having so much more fun,” Ward told Entrepreneur.
Photo by: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Ward, 45, chronicles her journey from one-time child star to adult content superstar in her new memoir Rated X — and says that the career switch has paid off big time, although that was never her intention.
She now earns six figures a month from OnlyFans, five figures a month from sex toy company Fleshlight, and another six figures yearly from her contract with the porn site Deeper. Add that all up, and it’s about 10 times what she made acting in TV and films (she also starred in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and the movie White Chicks).
“Don’t get me wrong. I was paid well in Hollywood, but nothing near what I am making now,” she said.
Ward also says that she enjoys a level of freedom and control that was never the case in her prior profession.
“Hollywood kind of typecast me and shunned me as this sitcom girl,” she added.
In her memoir, she writes about the sleazy encounters she had on the set of her TV show.
“Producers of Boy Meets World wanted me to try on lingerie in their office. Since Rachel was the only character that regularly removed her clothing, this occurred more than once,” she wrote.
Ward says her porn career has been free of the sexist drama, allowing her to build her own brand and have “total control over what comes in and what goes out.”
Related: Teacher Turned OnlyFans Model Says She Made $1 Million in 3 Years
An accidental pivot
Ward got into porn by accident.
She says it all started when she began posting risque photos of herself on social media. When those got flagged and taken down, some followers suggested she open a Patreon account.
“Honestly, I never thought about content to make money,” Ward said. “I was just showing myself and showing who I am.”
By her first week on Patreon, she had 2800 patrons, paying her anywhere from $15 to $300 a month for her content. She quickly became the number one adult creator on the site.
But Patreon only allowed her to post nudes. When Ward joined OnlyFans in 2019, everything changed. She began publishing porn videos shot by her husband, and her popularity soared. She now has around 28,000 OnlyFans members. Users will pay her $500 for two-minute custom videos in which she acts out a fantasy saying their name. Think Cameo meets Porno.
Ward likes making videos for foot fetishists because they’re very “nice and polite.” The weirdest request she’s ever gotten was to sniff her upper lip.
OnlyFans has launched her career into mainstream porn. For the streaming site Deeper, she commands the highest fee per scene in the industry.
Ward scoffs at her critics, who call her career move desperate.
“I guess that means a CEO of a successful company is desperate?” she said. “I’m not going to follow anyone else’s rules. And I think that’s really important to be authentic with yourself.”
To learn more about Ward’s life story, listen to my interview with her interview on the Write About Now Podcast.
