What’s a nice girl like Olivia Attwood doing in a place like this? I tell the Love Island star turned documentary-maker that I watched a preview of her latest series and felt like a right prude. To say that Getting Filthy Rich, the ITVX show in which she explores the online sale of sexual content, is graphic is to put it mildly. Particularly startling is the episode about the rise and rise of MILF home-porn (it stands for Mother I’d Like to…), which showcases seemingly ordinary women, mostly in their forties, doing rather rude things on their kitchen counters while paying customers watch on their phones.
So how did Olivia feel, given that she was in these very kitchens as the saucy selfie stuff was unfolding, not quite knowing where to look, or what surface it was safe to put her tea on?
‘I’m open-minded. My attitude is “live and let live” and if you aren’t hurting anyone…’ she says. ‘But I was constantly shocked. I’d go home and tell Brad [her footballer husband Bradley Dack, who plays for Gillingham] the things I’d seen and he thought I was pulling his leg. I called him once and said, “I watched a woman walk a man on a lead today. He was crawling on the floor.” Brad didn’t believe me until I was editing and he saw it for himself.’
The tone of the series – and this is the third – is non-judgmental, those involved almost celebrated for seizing the opportunity to make a fast buck on sites like OnlyFans, which have the potential to make porn stars of anyone with decent Wi-Fi.
But Olivia’s face does betray her, her expressions flickering between horror, disbelief and mortification. Didn’t she want to laugh at some of the more graphic shenanigans? (I’m thinking particularly of the exchange between a ‘mother’ and the online client who presents as her ‘baby’.)
Olivia – former model, ex-Formula One grid girl and one of TV’s lithe young lovelies
Olivia’s face does betray her on Getting Filthy Rich, her expressions flickering between horror, disbelief and mortification
Olivia on the show, in an episode called Asian Angels. She felt like an old prude faced with all the graphic content
‘It’s natural to laugh when you’re uncomfortable,’ she says. ‘But you have to have respect for a performer who’s invited you into their home to watch them do their job. I wouldn’t like to be laughed at for doing my job.’
The more she talks, the more it becomes apparent that even Olivia – former model, ex-Formula One grid girl and one of TV’s lithe young lovelies – also felt like an old prude faced with all this graphic content.
‘Yeah, totally. I’m all mouth and no trousers. I talk the talk, but it’s missionary position all the way in our house,’ she laughs. ‘It’s strange. There’s a section of society for whom sex is such a big part of their lives, whether they’re making sexual content or involved in this sort of fetish stuff. But then there’s the other side, people who are having sex once a month if that. Sex isn’t a big part of their lives.’ Dare we ask which section she belongs to? ‘When not making the show, I certainly don’t think about sex every day or talk about it.’
She’s struck by another realisation. ‘Actually, while I’m making this show we have less sex. I see it all day, then I get home and think, “If I see another penis, I’m going to cry.” I think Brad thought I’d learn some new tricks but actually I’m more likely to say, “Put your clothes on.”’
Poor Brad. For those who aren’t familiar with them, the pair dated briefly before Olivia’s 2017 stint on Love Island, then reunited after the show. They married in 2023 and their relationship has had the reality TV treatment on the ITV shows Olivia Meets Her Match and Olivia Marries Her Match.
Brad certainly meets his match in this latest documentary, when Olivia – trying to understand the MILF phenomenon and the associated GILF one (yes, it means Grannies) – asks him if he finds her mother sexually attractive. He has the good sense to say no and look queasy. Still, Olivia ponders, some women’s husbands must be paying for this stuff.
The presenter stripped naked to try out the risque art of body painting in the show
Olivia (left) in a kitchen on Getting Filthy Rich, where saucy selfie stuff was unfolding, not quite knowing where to look
‘Brad’s surprised about all this, but it’s primarily men who are buying this content. It’s husbands and brothers and fathers. I’ve said to him, “Does it feel weird that someone you know is buying this content? Like you have a friend at football who is into grannies, or things they hide from the outside world?”’
What qualifies Olivia to delve into such questions in a serious (ish) documentary format? It’s eight years since the privately educated girl from Surrey exited Love Island, and what’s striking is how slow and steady her career in the TV industry has been since then. She’s had a string of documentaries commissioned (and recommissioned, she notes), including The Price Of Perfection, an exploration of beauty standards and the cosmetic industry.
She’s impressed TV bosses with her presenting skills, most recently with the show Bad Boyfriends, a sort of bootcamp for wayward partners. There are whi
spers that she’s being wooed as a future Davina or Claudia.
Talking to her, I can see why she’s in demand. She has brains, warmth, humour – and candour galore. But she’s always surprised when other people are shocked that Love Island graduates might be intelligent. ‘It’s like any workplace,’ she shrugs. ‘Every office has their share of thickos and geniuses.’
Like everyone coming out of Love Island, she was branded an ‘influencer’, and she can’t decide whether to be disgusted or flattered that even when addressing complex social issues on her shows, she’s still ‘most likely to get asked on my socials where my trainers or coat comes from’.
Still, she’s rather glad that no one hurled documentaries in her direction right after she emerged from Love Island. ‘To get where I’ve got to now I’ve paid my dues for the past eight years, learning the craft. If I’d done a documentary six years ago it would have been terrible!’
Olivia with her footballer husband Bradley Dack. She says: ‘Actually, while I’m making this show we have less sex’
This new series of Getting Filthy Rich is certainly timely. Olivia meets members of the one per cent club on OnlyFans, who can earn millions by posting naked footage. Are these women empowered? She thinks so – but only to a point. ‘I’m still trying to work it out myself, to be honest.’
She’s concerned about young people growing up thinking that platforms like OnlyFans are perfectly legitimate ways to make a living. ‘You can earn insane amounts, but at what cost? It worries me that the TikTok generation find it so attractive when they haven’t had life experience,’ she says. ‘If you haven’t worked or travelled, you can make your world incredibly small by doing this, because there’s still a stigma involved with sex work. I wish young people would think about that first. That digital footprint follows you forever. You can think, “I love my boobs and I don’t care if they’re online,” but you might care in five years.’
Yet Olivia admits she can identify with those who might be tempted. ‘When I was modelling there was no OnlyFans. You were either a porn star or a model. Now, I think the two have started bleeding into each other.
‘It’s hard to say how I’d have felt about OnlyFans when I was a struggling model. It could have been attractive then, but now I know I wouldn’t cope very well with that kind of exposure. I don’t think I could deal with it.
‘But when you’re young you’re impulsive. When I was 20 or 21, I didn’t think about anything. I think that’s why I find the MILF thing on OnlyFans fascinating. These are older women who are making a choice.’
In the reality TV industry, she’s now entering older woman territory herself. Now 33, she says, ‘I think I’m at the best age now. People say your twenties are the best, but that’s a lie. You don’t know who you are. I was a mess, jumping from one boyfriend to the next. There’s a freedom that comes with being in your thirties.
‘Brad and I don’t have kids yet. We want them one day, but we have friends who have children who are up at 6am and when I speak to them they’re heading to a play farm, whereas we can be totally selfish. I’m at the stage where no one needs anything from me. I’m going to make the most of that while I can.’
Jenny Johnston
- Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich, Sunday, 10.05pm, ITV2.
