Lily Phillips

OnlyFans creator, pornographic actress.

“I’m not ashamed of what I’m doing.”

Lily Phillips is one of the most successful pornographic actresses in the world.
Late last year, she was catapulted into the limelight by Josh Pieter’s documentary I Slept With 100 Men In One Day, a raw document that followed Lily’s attempt to perform the shocking act described in its title. The piece soon went viral, with one particular clip garnering over 200 million views on X.

Since then, she has announced plans to reach 300, before going for 1000.

Why did we invite her on?

Since announcing last week that Lily would be appearing on the show, we have faced pushback unlike anything we’ve experienced. In the days that followed, we fielded accusations of ‘platforming’ a harmful influence, of exploiting a vulnerable young woman, and of producing gutter-press clickbait.

That’s not why we’re doing it.

Firstly, we didn’t seek Lily out - she came to us. She trusted that we would ask the difficult questions, explore the subject with curiosity, and that it wouldn’t degenerate into either finger-wagging moralising or the stuff of filth rag back pages.

Ultimately, we decided it was an important conversation to have. Lily has found herself at the centre of a much larger conversation, and it’s one we didn’t feel we could ignore. Often dismissed as a base subject, the politics and morality of sex is a topic that stokes immense debate. Few things in life strike at our most primal instincts, stir up more overwhelming emotion, and define how we see one another. While it can’t be measured in statistics and graphs, it’s impossible not to take a view. If anything proved that, it was the response to our reveal that she would be our next guest - the world doesn’t agree on who Lily is, and that alone is compelling.

But that’s not all - we wanted to get a look at the person in the eye of the storm. Lily’s name has appeared in a thousand tabloid headlines, and it seems everyone and their mother (especially their mother) has a view on her exploits. And depending on how you define the terms, the most intimate, vulnerable moments of her life are already available for public consumption. All of this is true, but not much is known about her.

This is what we wanted to know, and that’s why we invited her on.

What did we talk about?

Any conversation of this kind is a high-wire act, and sitting down to explore it for an hour is something of a landmine marathon. With that in mind, we leave much of the initial conversation to Lily. At just 23, she’s found herself at the centre of a media storm where frothing pundits can’t decide if she’s a victim or a pimp. How does she feel about it? How did she end up here?

Lily’s story is simple: “I was always like this, now I just get paid for it.”

”I don’t think I’m this innocent thing that needs to be bubble-wrapped and can’t be used … I realised what sex meant to be, which is enjoyment.”

To Lily, the money makes no difference - whether or not she earns thousands for her exploits bears no impact on whether they happen. “100 Men In One Day” might well have taken place anyway, and none of us would know. It’s a compelling argument - if she’d be doing it regardless of the rewards, why not earn a living for it? Is it anyone’s business?

But to her critics, it’s not an afterthought - it’s a defining characteristic. Lily’s “extreme acts” are not troubling despite the fortune they’ve earned her, but, at least in part, because of it. It’s long been known the influence that social media has on young minds, and it’s a strain to believe that none of the millions of young women observing Lily’s lavish life and the means by which she enjoys it are never going to ask themselves: “shall I do that?”

She concedes that her ‘kinks’ make her a unique case, but if young women decide to follow in her footsteps, does Lily feel any responsibility for what happens to them?