Adult mannequin made £28,000 in a month however battled habit which tore her household aside
A 33-year-old mum was making up to £28,500 monthly on an adult site but was battling a devastating addiction which separated her from her sons
Aaryn Joseph, 33
A mum who once raked in almost £28,500 a month on an adult site has opened up about the devastating addiction struggle she battled, which ripped her family apart.
Aaryn Joseph, 33, from Tampa, Florida, admits she is still “crying” four years after making the gut-wrenching choice to send her eldest son to live with relatives in Oklahoma. The content creator, who quit sex work 18 months ago, has spoken out about hitting rock bottom and the mental health battles behind her addiction.
Aaryn said: “The choice was never my children or drugs, it was always live or die.” The mum’s descent into chaos started in 2019 following her move from Arizona to Florida. That year, Aaryn was hit with felony charges including attacking a police officer, resisting with violence and being drunk in public.
The ordeal was a watershed moment Aaryn now recognises as the beginning of her life falling apart. After the charges, probation breaches followed, deepening her legal troubles. To make matters worse, after returning from an influencer trip, Aaryn confessed to abusing substances as well.
By early 2022, Aaryn was placed under strict community control with an ankle tag, which she says made it incredibly challenging to properly look after her eldest son Sean, who has level two autism, ARFID and echolalia. Facing enormous pressure, Aaryn and the children’s grandparents made the decision for both boys to temporarily move to Oklahoma in February 2022.
Aaryn said: “I’m still crying, still in shock. It will be four years since I let my baby go to his Nana’s. Four long, heartbreaking years, but I never stopped fighting, I didn’t give up.” Sean resides in Oklahoma with relatives, while her five-year-old Brandon currently lives with her in Florida.
Her circumstances deteriorated further when she breached her probation terms once more and received a county jail sentence in 2022 – a time she describes as amongst the darkest moments of her life. Following her release in September 2022, she tried to rebuild her life but suffered a relapse within weeks. Her absolute rock bottom arrived months later in February 2023 after losing what she called a “very much wanted pregnancy.”
During this period, Aaryn revealed she was trapped in a months-long spiral while battling several mental health conditions, including borderline personality disorder, bipolar II disorder, ADHD and Pure-O OCD. She stated her personality disorder is now in remission after more than two years without meeting diagnostic criteria.
Aaryn said: “The lowest point in my addiction was February 2023. I was struggling with my mental health and five months into a binge.” She admitted herself to the Mandela Center in West Palm Beach but discharged herself the following day.
Shortly afterwards, Aaryn said she was found asleep outside a hospital emergency room, lying in a gazebo on top of her luggage after leaving rehab.
She said her family located her using an AirTag in her bag and travelled to reach her while she slept for several hours during a meth detox exhaustion.
Aaryn said: “I was not in the emergency room. I was outside of it in a gazebo sleeping on top of my luggage.” She now marks that moment as the beginning of her recovery. The mother added: “I was tired of feeling nothing but rage. I wasn’t just an angry woman. I was a dangerous one.”
Despite the turmoil, Aaryn maintains she never stopped loving her boys. The mother said: “I was never choosing drugs over my children. I was trying to find a way to stay alive so I could watch them grow up. I wanted to die, but I wanted to watch my children grow up more. So I decided to sit in my pain and break the cycle.”
Prior to her imprisonment, Aaryn revealed she was grafting “non-stop” and had risen into the top 0.12 per cent of creators on OnlyFans, sometimes pulling in over $36,000 a month.
“Today my income is far more modest. I earn around £870 ($1,100) in a good month and I’m currently on state assistance for healthcare, while my son receives SNAP food benefits. I’ve been trying to hustle with my TikTok Shop and I’m starting to see it grow thanks to my video content going viral,” she said.
The account has helped boost her sales and audience growth. And she now reckons her meteoric social media success, which saw her original TikTok account balloon to 1.7 million followers in merely 18 months, played a part in her downfall.
Aaryn explained: “Social media changed my personality for the worst. Anytime there is a huge audience, there’s always going to be criticism.
“People get really bold behind a screen and behind their cameras. I am a borderline in remission with severe trauma and rejection sensitivity so I had a constant desire to prove myself anytime anything was said, and it was exhausting.
“There were tons of millions of people criticising me for months. All the while I was dealing with postpartum depression and trying to cope with pregnancy loss and a divorce.”
Eighteen months back, Aaryn revealed she decided to quit the adult entertainment world to concentrate on healing and being a mum. Her primary objective now involves moving to Oklahoma so both her lads can attend the same primary school. The mother revealed the most hard-hitting online abuse has targeted her mothering skills and allegations that she “abandoned” her autistic son.
Aaryn said: “The most painful thing to hear is that I gave my son away because he has autism.” Shas made a concerted effort to ignore online trolls, even when faced with death threats. There’s nothing anyone could say to me today that could hurt me, I know who I am.”
Now in remission from her personality disorder and continuing her mental health treatment, Aaryn’s daily life is a far cry from the turmoil of her past.
The mum keeps herself occupied looking after her seven-month-old puppy, Birdie, and her cat, Astro.
The 33-year-old mother has said: “Today my biggest joy is being with my children and seeing them happy. I got clean not just so I could live a better life, but so that they could too.” As Aaryn nears her third year of sobriety she remains committed to reuniting her family.
Aaryn added: “I just want better for my children, not just for right now, but for the rest of their lives.”
For more information or to support Aaryn’s journey, visit her GoFundMe page here.
