The single mom who runs OnlyFans and insists it is a feminist web site amid Lily Phillips and Bonnie Blue controversy

A single parent of two daughters who juggles motherhood with a dazzling career as a chief executive, Keily Blair could pass as the ultimate inspiration to women. 

The lawyer turned CEO of OnlyFans, 42, has seen her corporate career fly from one success to the next, advocating for women’s ‘choice’ over their money, jobs and bodies since taking on the role in July 2023.  

But while the porn-friendly site is painted as a feminist platform for women to get rich and gain sexual agency, OnlyFans is also home to ‘dangerous’ sex stunts that put vulnerable women at risk. 

OnlyFans star Lily Phillips recently shocked the world after revealing she’d had sex with over 100 men in one night – and that her next goal was to bed 1,000 men in 24 hours.

Lily, who posted the explicit content to her OnlyFans page, was filmed in tears after the ordeal, which she admitted was more ‘intense’ than she’d hoped and forced her to ‘dissociate’ from what was happening.  

The controversial stunt received backlash from fellow OnlyFans stars, who called it a form of ‘self harm’ and argued it ‘sends a message’ to other creators that ‘pushing yourself to dangerous extremes is normal’. 

The sex work life differs from the corporate one of Blair’s, who went from London-based partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP – specialising in cyber, privacy, and security – to an executive at her former client, OnlyFans.

The mother-of-two speaks publicly about women having ‘choice’ over their own lives, arguing in a recent interview: ‘I fundamentally believe that people should be able to make choices about what they do. 

‘I think as a society, and particularly women, we’ve had a lot of people telling us what we can do, with our bodies, with our jobs, with our money, with our lives. I’ve no interest in that.’ 

Born and raised in Dublin, Blair moved to Britain to study Law and Politics at Oxford Brookes University, before qualifying as a solicitor in 2007. 

A cybersecurity and privacy expert, her early career included time at PwC and law firms Forsters and Allen & Overy. 

Blair was even the first winner of the Inspirational Women in Law Awards in 2016 – after which she opened up about the struggles of balancing motherhood to daughters Eden and Bea with a high flying career. 

‘There are things that have happened to me probably uniquely because I’m female,’ she said. 

‘I remember coming back from maternity leave and I remember there was a project being discussed that would involve international travel. There was an automatic assumption that I wouldn’t want to go.’ 

She added: ‘I remember going into the managing partner’s office and sitting down and I said, ‘This may be coming from a place of kindness, but do you realise that you just ruled me out of a really interesting job because I’ve just come back from maternity leave because you think I won’t want to spend time away from my baby’.’ 

In January 2020, Blair joined Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, a London law firm. At Orrick, she was head of the firm’s cyber, privacy and data innovation practice – with OnlyFans among her clients.  

She became the company’s chief strategy and operations officer, before being promoted to CEO in July last year. 

She succeeded Amrapali ‘Ami’ Gan, who stepped down to pursue new endeavors, OnlyFans said at the time. 

On securing the position, Blair reiterated the importance of ‘choice’ for the site’s creators, sating: ‘OnlyFans only succeeds when creators succeed. It is our mission to make OnlyFans the platform of choice for a diverse range of creators and fans across the world. 

‘I will continue to put our creators at the heart of every business decision and will provide them with an inclusive, safe, and innovative platform to connect with their fans and monetize their content.’ 

Speaking to Fortune about her decision to leave a ‘professional background’, she said she was ready for a ‘negative reaction’, but describes the site as a ‘UK tech success story’. 

In October this year, she claimed a top priority of the company was to provide safety to OnlyFans users. 

‘Everyone assumes it’s sexy content. Some of it sexy content and we’re very happy with that, we’re an inclusive platform, and we’re that way for a reason,’ she said. 

‘We believe it’s very important for adult content creators to have a safe space, to be able to monetize and also to be able to do that alongside other content creators.’

But some high profile OnlyFans stars have found themselves the victims of terrifying death threats. 

Bonnie Blue, famed for bragging about sleeping with ‘barely legal 18-year-olds’, revealed she gets up to 300 death threats a day from women and was told she would ‘end up in a box’ after her sex marathons.

The 25-year-old said she makes up to a whopping £750,000 a month, which includes posting X-rated content on her OnlyFans account.

Last month, she planned to fly to Australia for a free sex marathon with teenage school leavers. In exchange, they had to consent to her posting the content online.

But Bonnie – who has been slammed by parents – was forced to contact the police after receiving vicious death threats on social media that left her fearing for her life.

‘I must get 200 to 300 plus death threats a day,’ she told The Sun. ‘The one I got this morning was like: ”When you arrive in Surfers Paradise [in Australia], you’re going to be leaving in a box. You should kill yourself before we have to kill you.”’

‘Wishing someone dead and wishing harm on them? That’s a bad person, not me.’

From December 2021 to June 2023, the UK-based company saw its global user base increase to more than 220 million fans and over 3 million creators. 

OnlyFans, which is based in the UK, relies solely on subscriptions, pay-per-view events or tips for its online creators, with a large portion creating adult content. 

The company has paid out $20billion to its creators since its inception in 2016, it was revealed earlier this year. 

Despite her success, Blair has experienced negative reactions since becoming CEO, one example being when a bank rejected her as a customer for a personal account because of her association with OnlyFans. 

‘I was an equity partner at a law firm, one of only a handful of women who was an equity partner, and I had a team of people working for me,’ she told the FT. ‘That institution would previously have been incredibly keen to have my business. Nothing about me has changed, nothing about my risk profile has changed.’

Financial institutions, fearful of facilitating financial transactions for illegal sex work or crimes like sex trafficking, often turned down those associated with such platforms.