Sarah Jayne Dunn hits out at Hollyoaks sacking over her OnlyFans account

Sarah Jayne Dunn who played Mandy on the show said she “had to take a stand”
Sarah Jayne Dunn/Instagram

The star, 40, said she “had to take a stand” and hit out at soap bosses for hypocrisy after she posed for their own evocative official calendars.

The actress, who played Mandy Richardson on the soap since 1996, made an account on OnlyFans – a website which allows users to share content with paying “fans” – last month.

Hollyoaks said cast members are not allowed “to be active on certain 18+ websites” and confirmed Dunn is departing the soap.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, the star said she was “disappointed” by the outcome but “I feel like I had to take a stand”.

Her OnlyFans page offers a subscription for £11 a month
Sarah Jayne Dunn

She said: “For me this is about having the right as a woman of 40 years old to decide what is right for me.

“I love photoshoots and I’ve worked hard for my figure. I don’t make a secret of the fact that I get a big boost out of it and I’m not apologetic for that.

“The pictures I’ve put on OnlyFans are no more explicit than the sort of things I’ve done in the past for magazines and even for Hollyoaks’ own official calendar.

“And I thought long and hard about the decision to join the site and had a number of conversations with my husband about it.”

She added: “The idea that it’s just pornography is a total misconception, it’s not the case at all.”

Ms Dunn’s OnlyFans page offers a subscription for £11 a month and also has a link to an Amazon wish-list where fans can buy her gifts including various costumes.

OnlyFans was founded in 2016 by British entrepreneur Tim Stokely and its official website says the platform has “1,500,000+ content creators” and it has paid out at least £3.7 billion “annually to creators”.

Earlier this year it announced plans to ban sexually explicit photographs and videos on its platform but backtracked after a backlash from users.

Hollyoaks said the content was not in line with its target audience and it did not allow cast members to sell such photos.

“Hollyoaks is a youth-facing drama with many young viewers, who follow our cast very closely, both in the soap and outside of it,” a spokesperson told the BBC.

“We take our responsibility to our young audience very seriously and therefore the show does not allow any Hollyoaks cast members to be active on certain 18+ websites.

“We had hoped we could reach a resolution with Sarah that would allow her to remain in her role as Mandy, but we respect her choice to continue to produce content on OnlyFans.

“In the past four years since her return to the show her legacy character has been an integral part of some our most important storylines and we will be very sad to see her go,”

Ms Dunn posted a statement on Instagram about her move to OnlyFans, saying: “This is a decision I’ve thought long and hard about, not one I’ve taken lightly or on a whim, it’s about taking back control.”

“I’ve done men’s mag upon men’s mag and calendar upon calendar, I’ve enjoyed every shoot but never felt like I had much say in them.

“I’ve been pitted against other girls and felt deflated if not chosen for a shoot or for a cover, I’ve been airbrushed, retouched and ‘enhanced’ without consent and without necessity and I’ve not always been given photo or copy (the wording of an interview) approval, leaving both my image and words distorted.

“The older I get the more cathartic it is to take back control, to put healthy boundaries in place and to know my worth and my value.”

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