Drea de Matteo says starting her OnlyFans account saved her and her family's lives

Revealing how the move earned her enough cash to pay off her mortgage debts within five minutes, Drea told DailyMail.com: "It saved us. OnlyFans saved my life, 100 per cent.

"I can't believe I'm saying that, but it really did save us.

"Anybody that wants to condemn me and put me down, go for it. I just hope you never find yourself in the position I was in to take care of two little kids.

"It saved my home of many years that was very important to us. And beyond all that, it has given me enough money to start up and finance ultra-free."

Mum-of-two Drea - who had her daughter and son with her musician ex-fiancé Waylon Jennings, 44, before they split - said about her momey woes before starting on OnlyFans: "They put me into foreclosure and my house had flooded, so I was trying to sell the house quickly.

"I wanted to try and sell it before they took it. At the same time, I lost my mom, and my other mom, who has dementia, had run out of money for her caregiver. I didn't know which way was up."

Drea said about seeing her money shoot up as she posted more and more content: "I was like, (God), in five minutes, I was able to pay back compass real estate who kept the sale of my house."

But she admitted: "I did it, but I didn't want to do it. I got a lot of heat for doing it and it went viral and people went nuts."

She also said her original plan was to do a podcast for the platform and put it behind a paywall, but now feels empowered by being on it.

Drea added: "It feels good to see those photos. They might be touched up here and there but the truth is they videotape me going live when we do the photoshoot so fans can see the photo shoot happening in real time."