Soap star James Sutton, best known for playing legendary gay character John Paul McQueen on Hollyoaks, has joined OnlyFans – although his content might not be what fans are expecting.
Sutton, 43, announced on Friday (17 April) that he has joined OnlyFans, a subscription site where internet users can pay for exclusive content from their favourite creators or celebrities, having recently said goodbye to the Channel 4 soap after two decades on the show.
But while the website has become synonymous with sex workers and adult entertainers due to the site allowing sexual content, creators can upload non-sexual posts to the site too.
That’s the route being taken by Sutton, who is using the site to give fans a look at his day-to-day life since leaving Hollyoaks and launching his self-help platform Protocol.
His content on OnlyFans, which costs $15.99 per month to access, will cover his work as a writer and keynote speaker and explore the themes covered in his podcast Male Mind Matters, in addition to his gym routine. Sutton will also star in a series for OFTV, the platform's safe-for-work original content channel.
Sutton’s bio on the site reads: “Actor. Writer. Speaker. Mindset. Identity. Fitness. Very often undressed,” and promises subscribers “unfiltered access to his training sessions, programming breakdowns, physical changes, and the reality of maintaining a strong body in your forties”.
Speaking about joining OnlyFans, Sutton told the Daily Mail: “OnlyFans felt like a natural next step for me. It gives me the freedom to share more of who I am beyond the characters I once played and to connect with those fans that have supported me throughout my career.”
The Birmingham-born actor first joined the cast of Hollyoaks in 2006, where he played the character of John Paul on-and-off for 20 years and was one of the show’s longest-standing cast members.
During one of his breaks from the soap, Sutton also had a two-year stint between 2009 and 2011 playing mechanic Ryan Lamb in Emmerdale.
And he isn’t the only British soap actor to have leveraged their on-screen career to success on the platform. In 2021, his Hollyoaks co-star Sarah Jayne Dunn quit the soap after refusing to comply with show bosses’ requests to leave OnlyFans.
“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, about empowerment and confidence and having full power over my choices,” she told fans at the time.
