"Harry Potter" star Jessie Cave admitted she felt embarrassed about joining OnlyFans after struggling to support her four children despite appearing in the blockbuster film franchise.
During a Thursday appearance on ITV's "This Morning," Cave, who played Lavender Brown in the "Harry Potter" movies, said she faced financial pressure while raising four children and navigating an unpredictable acting career before joining the subscription-based platform.
"I was in Harry Potter, but it was a smallish part, and it was 20 years ago. I've done little roles ever since, and I've mainly done comedy," Cave said.
"People just assume I'm rich, and I have loads of money, and no, I don't," she continued. "So it was embarrassing because, on a certain level, I would have really liked to get a job. But you know what it's like, you have kids. It costs so much for childcare."
Cave launched her account in March 2025 to post videos of herself brushing, braiding and styling her waist-length hair. She has described the content as catering to a niche audience with an interest or "fetish" in hair.
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Cave said raising four children made it increasingly difficult to afford acting and live performances.
"I mean even going to the Edinburgh Festival, I can't even really afford to do the whole run anymore, because I can't afford how much it would cost to take all my kids," she said. "And people assume 'Oh don't take your kids,' but I want to take my kids."
"I have felt like I've had to apologize a lot," Cave continued. "I think it's a choice to have four kids as well. I've always wanted to make art at the same time, and also, I chose to do this weird job."
"I couldn't really have done anything else. ... I have managed to keep afloat workwise as an actress. It's a very small proportion of people who work regularly," she noted.
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"And I have done the odd job here, and I have managed to keep afloat for 18 years, and it just came to a moment a couple of years ago where I was like 'Oh yeah, I don't really know what I would do' and this was an option. I'm now so glad, I'm so glad."
Cave previously discussed her OnlyFans career in an interview with The Times and revealed how much she had earned from the platform. She said she had "earned more, easily, than my entire acting career within one year."
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"I thought I’d make five grand, be on it for a few months, and it would buy me time to work out what we’re going to do," Cave said. "But it’s now been over a year and a half, and it’s genuinely saved our lives."
Cave charges subscribers $6 a month for her non-explicit "hair content," which includes videos of her brushing her hair while fully clothed and dressed in costumes, braiding it and tying it into a ponytail.
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Cave said singers Lily Allen and Kate Nash inspired her to join OnlyFans after they launched their own pages on the platform.
Although she described motherhood as the most important part of her life, Cave said she had made a conscious decision not to share photos or information about her children on social media.
"I don't really post much about my kids," she said on "This Morning." "... I didn't want to post them, so I just started doing funny videos of me brushing my hair and plaiting my hair. And then people liked them, and I thought, just, 'Oh' and I was really in a quite desperate spot. And at the time, Lily Allen had just come on. She'd said she'd used her feet for money, and I thought this sounds great!"
"Kate Nash has funded her tours with doing it. I just thought, ‘I mainly do one-woman shows with puppets,’" Cave continued. "Yes, I was in 'Harry Potter' but I'm a struggling artist basically."
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"I took a chance, and I thought I'd make a little bit of money to fund, or to pay back the money I lost during one of the Edinburgh Festivals I've done, because it's extortionate now, and I've just kept going," she shared. "I kind of now think of it, I mean it's not art but it's artful. It's really long, my hair, so you can do a lot with it. I do all sorts. I kind of think of it like a circus act now."
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Cave said she struggled to balance motherhood with her creative career after having her fourth child and initially viewed OnlyFans as a temporary source of income.
"I think after my fourth baby, he's now four, he's about to start school, I have really struggled to find my way as an artist, as I am at home all the time," Cave said.
"I have done jobs. I'm mainly a writer and my brain has just changed in the last four years. I have really struggled to find a way forward financially as an artist, and this was always a way of having a stopgap just while I work out what I'm going to do next, see if I can earn a bit of money on the side to fund my next show or my next tour or whatever I do," she continued.
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"Now I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He's about to start school and all four will be at school. I'll have more time, I don't know what I'll do."
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Cave stressed the platform has "really saved" her and helped her become more confident as a woman.
"There's lots of traps and then there's also so much beauty in it, too," Cave said. "You're engaging with people that you would never usually speak to all around the world."
"It's really opened me up and definitely made me more confident as a woman because I've always just been very awkward, very, very weird. And this has kind of made me be like, 'Oh, I can actually just do a photo of myself and try and look hot.' And that's quite nice," she added.
