"Even after being on The Sopranos for a long time, Drea De Matteo had a lot going on: she had two kids, her mom had dementia, her house was flooded, she had a huge mortgage bill she hadn't paid, and she only had $10 in her bank account. That's when she decided to post sexy pictures on OnlyFans, a site where people pay to see content. And it made a big difference right away."
"In a recent interview, the actress remembered, 'I was like, oh my gosh!' In just five minutes, I managed to repay Compass real estate for my house sale. De Matteo has talked about this choice before, mentioning a lack of work because of her vaccine stance and having trouble paying her mortgage. But she never fully said how bad her money situation was."
"They were going to take my house because I couldn't pay for it, and my house had flooded, so I needed to sell it fast. I wanted to sell it before they took it away," the actress told the Daily Mail. "At the same time, my mom passed away, and my other mom, who has dementia, didn't have enough money for her caregiver anymore. I felt really lost and confused."
Switching to the subscription site helped her take care of her two kids and even start her own streetwear brand, Ultrafree. "It rescued us. OnlyFans saved my life completely," she told the newspaper. "I never thought I'd say that, but it truly rescued us."
Silvio Dante (played by Steven Van Zandt) killed her in a very memorable episode, but de Matteo came back for two episodes in Season 6. She got an Emmy award for her acting in 2004. After The Sopranos, de Matteo showed up on other TV shows like Desperate Housewives and Sons of Anarchy, and more.
But that didn't mean she had enough money for the rest of her life, the actress explained. "People think I'm really rich, but I'm not," she said last year. "I've had to work from one job to another."