Tori Spelling has shared she is considering opening an OnlyFans account to cover her five children’s college expenses.
During her misSPELLING podcast on Wednesday, the 51-year-old “Beverly Hills, 90210” star discussed her business ideas while chatting with guest William Shatner, 93.
Spelling, famous for her role as Donna Martin on the hit 90s show, shares five children with her ex-husband Dean McDermott, 57: Liam Aaron, 17; Stella Doreen, 16; Hattie Margaret, 12; Finn Davey, 11; and Beau Dean, 7.
As they talked about her co-parenting with McDermott, Shatner pointed out that her children would soon be heading to college.
“So you’ve got numerous children going to school and university whence they will eventually go to, I’m here to tell you is inordinately, I mean, it’s just crazy,” Shatner observed.
Spelling responded, “I’m gonna have to go on OnlyFans in order to get them into college.”
When Shatner asked her to explain what OnlyFans is, Spelling said, “How do you describe OnlyFans?”
“So OnlyFans is a site I guess, originally, it was more women in the field – not sex workers – but along those lines, but now actresses do it.”
Shatner asked Spelling to clarify what kind of content is featured on the paid service.
“When you say not sex workers, but along those lines, they’re either are or they’re aren’t,’ Shatner said. ‘They’re either putting out or they’re not putting out. They’re putting out, they’re looking for sexual adventures – yes?”
Spelling explained that OnlyFans has ‘transformed’ into a platform for a variety of content creators.
She elaborated, “Now there’s comedians on there and chefs, and it involves videos. People pay to subscribe. A lot of actresses are on it now, and they show things.”
“So, if you’re in a bikini or something revealing, if people subscribe and pay more, they can get, like, a shot of you with your breast showing.”
When Shatner inquired whether performers post clips with ‘everything showing,’ Spelling responded, “If you want, if you choose.”
She also mentioned that content creators on OnlyFans have various payment options for their work, including “credit card, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, PayPal.”
Spelling previously discussed her interest in the platform during a January 2023 appearance on Jeff Lewis Live on SiriusXM. She revealed that she had subscribed to an account started by her friend, actress Denise Richards.
Spelling admitted that she used a pseudonym to subscribe and ended up spending about $400 over two days.
“I was just kind of fascinated by the whole OnlyFans, and I’m not gonna lie, I was like, “Let me check it out – what does it entail?”‘ Spelling said. ‘So I looked at it, and of course, it shows something, and unless you subscribe, you can’t get it.”
“So, of course, I subscribed under a fake name. It’s riveting, because they’re like, “Hey, we might show you this in this shower.” And I just want to see. It’s my friend. Like, “Hey, how far is she going?”‘
She continued, “They say, allegedly, if you tip them, they get back to you faster. So, I was like, “Hey, love what I’m seeing. Would love to see some more.” I ended up, in the course of two days, spending $400. I couldn’t stop. So I kept tipping her – but I didn’t want her to know it was me in the DMs.'”
Spelling’s consideration of joining OnlyFans follows a period of well-documented financial difficulties. In recent years, she has found herself staying at budget hotels and RV parks in Ventura County, California, due to cash flow issues.
Her financial struggles are a stark contrast to the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle she grew up in. Her late father, Aaron Spelling, was a prolific television producer known for iconic shows like “Dynasty,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Love Boat,” “Melrose Place,” “Charmed,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
When Aaron Spelling passed away in June 2006, he left behind a $500 million empire. However, Tori’s share of the inheritance was relatively modest at $800,000—a sum identical to what her brother, Randy Spelling, received, according to a report by Page Six last year.
This summer, Spelling and her children moved out of a rental home in Woodland Hills, California, where they were paying $15,000 a month. They left the property in poor condition, frustrating neighbors by leaving both the interior and exterior ‘completely trashed,’ as one neighbor described.
In April, Tori, who has admitted to struggling with hoarding, shared on her podcast that she organized an estate sale in 2016. She needed to clear an ‘outstanding bill of $80,000’ for 50 storage units she had fallen behind on during a period when she was financially ‘broke.’
A source told DailyMail.com last year that Spelling was facing financial issues and was considering a return to reality TV.
“Tori is caught between a rock and a hard place right now as she is trying to figure out what her next job is going to be,’ the source said. ‘She is looking into doing some more in the reality competition show world.”
In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, Candy Spelling noted that budgeting was not one of Tori’s strengths, recalling how she ‘would close a store and drop $50,000 to $60,000.’
In her 2013 book Spelling It Like It Is, Tori Spelling reflects on her upbringing and its impact on her financial struggles as an adult.
“It’s not my fault I’m an uptown girl stuck in a midtown life,” she wrote. “I was raised in opulence. My standards are ridiculously high. We can’t afford that lifestyle, but when you grow up with a silver spoon, it’s hard to switch to plastic.”
Tori has experienced a strained relationship with her mother, Candy Spelling, over the years.
She made headlines in 2005 for her extramarital affair with Dean McDermott, whom she met while both were married—Tori to Charlie Shahnaian and McDermott to Mary Jo Eustace. They eloped to Fiji in May 2006, a month before her father, Aaron, passed away.
In her 2008 book sTORI Telling, Tori expressed that her family was disappointed with her decision to elope with McDermott.
In a 2009 interview with 94.7 WMAS-FM, Candy Spelling spoke candidly about the deep family rift, revealing, “My daughter one day decided that she wasn’t speaking to my husband, myself and my son, and that’s how it’s continued for the last, oh gosh, four or five years,’ Candy said. ‘And it was sad. That’s what killed my husband, actually. He just didn’t want to live after that.”
Candy also released an open letter in 2009 stating that she and Tori hadn’t spoken for years and that she had not yet met her granddaughter Stella, who was a year old at the time.
“You haven’t responded to my e-mails, phone calls and text messages,” Candy said. “You say you look at my website, so I’m trying to reach you that way. I want to see you and your family – in private, like the “normal family” you say [you] always wanted.”
In an interview with People, Tori clarified her relationship with her mother, Candy, saying that while they “simply never meshed,” they were not actively feuding. She emphasized that she was open to letting Candy see her grandchildren.
“I, in no way, cut her off,” Tori stated. “She is welcome to make the effort if she wants to be present in their lives. She knows how to reach me, she knows where we live. If she would love to see her grandchildren, she should really make an effort to reach out and see them.”
The relationship between mother and daughter has shown signs of improvement; in October 2022, Tori shared on Jeff Lewis Live that she and her mother “text every single day.”