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A
Hi, I'm James Weah. You're listening to Witness, the home of investigative podcasts for news.comau this is our newest series, Sex, Lies and Streaming. And as you might have guessed by the title, this series is designed for adult ears only. So maybe don't play this one in the car with kids. Emma, Hi.
B
Hey, James, how are you?
A
That's Emma Gilman. She's a publicist. I'm good. I'm good. And that's me, James Weah. Hi. In la. Thanks so much for letting me tag along with you guys. I know it's a big week. Am I still okay to do the private jet with you guys and travel with Bonnie?
B
Well, so you are able to do the private jet with us, but yeah. Some bad news is Bonnie has just got a cold. She's a bit exhausted. You know, she did the world record attempt last week. We're going ahead. It's only going to be three of us, plus you. So nice and intimate. But, yeah, she won't be joining for the flight.
A
Okay. Will she still be in Vegas?
B
I'm with her manager and her sister, so we'll be meeting her there.
A
This phone call is happening on a Tuesday morning in January. We're talking about Bonnie Blue, the notorious DIY porn creator who has turned controversy into cold, hard cash. She's the racy alter ego of tia Billinger, a 25 year old from Derbyshire, England. And depending on who you ask, she's either a feminist entrepreneur or the Internet's most dangerous influence. It's about one week after Bonnie's world record attempt where she claims to have slept with 1,057 men in 12 hours. I've been promised an interview with her along with access inside her world. I've flown 12,000 kilometres from Sydney to LA to catch a private jet to Vegas with Bonnie and her entourage. But now that plan seems to have changed. If we can. If I can definitely track her down in Vegas, that would be good. If you can help me. If you can help me lock her down. She sounds like she's in demand at the moment.
B
I mean, we're there for another full week, so we'll find some time.
A
Okay, well, Emma, I will. I'll see you soon on the pj.
B
See you. Bye.
A
I'm on my way to an airport hangar in Van Nuys, just north of la, to catch a flight with one of the most controversial women in the world, Bonnie Blue. But there's an issue. Bonnie has gone awol. She's seemingly missing. It's hard to believe Someone like this could just disappear from the spotlight, vanishing faster than a teenage boy's Internet browser history. Especially when that person has spent the past year courting global news headlines with divisive sex stunts.
C
Our next guest is one of the most controversial people online.
D
25 year old Bonnie Blue from Derbyshire is making headlines around the world for filming herself having sex sex with teenagers and posting the footage online. Hey Karen's I thought I'd give you an education. Just because you don't enjoy it does not mean your sons don't.
A
Do you think it's okay that men cheat on their wives with you?
D
100 why? Because women are lazy. If you ask the average person when's the last time your wife went down on him, they're going to say it's ages ago. The other thing with women, they want women rights and they want things equal. But then they're the ones that want the bills to be paid for.
A
I first became aware of Bonnie Blue a few months ago when I was reporting from Schoolies on the Gold coast in Australia. The annual week long party for high school graduates aged 17 and 18 had been hijacked by Bonnie who was on a mission to. Well, I'll just let her explain it.
D
I'm the girl that's been sleeping with Spring breakers. So it's my last night at the Grand Oasis and I want to make it special for both you and me. I'm in room 4552s and I want to film with you tonight. So bring your ID along, bring your friends along and get me on my knees. Let me pleasure you and let me get a video out of it. And no, your face doesn't have to be shown nor do you even have to last a long time. Yes, you can finish wherever you want and if the do not Disturb signs on it's because someone else has probably beat you to it. So give them five minutes.
A
After having her visa cancelled in Australia before the Gold Coast Schoolies event, she tried taking her challenge to Fiji to sleep with vacationing graduates only to be deported from the island paradise. Over the past year, it's scandalous exploits like this that have become the cornerstone of her online adult entertainment business model. The strategy seems simple. Bonnie trolls Pearl clutching conservatives with debaucherous antics that attract thousands of headlines and even more subscribers who pay to watch the X rated scenes on platforms like OnlyFans, one of the most popular online pay per view websites that has completely disrupted the adult entertainment industry. Revenue jumped from $375 million in 2020 to $6.6 billion in 2023, with reports its owner, Phoenix International, is now in talks to sell at a valuation of around $8 billion. What started as a niche platform has quickly become a household name with everyone from reality TV stars to university students joining the site. Now, with an iPhone and an Internet connection, anyone, even your own friends, colleagues and family members, including grandma, can become a porn star. I'm following Bonnie to Las Vegas for the annual adult video news convention, A week long carnival of flesh that explosively climaxes with the so called Oscars of porn. This is ground zero of the attention economy, where fame is measured in subscribers and everyone's convinced they're just one viral moment away from financial freedom. In the neon lit hallways of a desert casino, I'll live alongside the performers, agents and die hard fans who have turned intimate exposure into big business and expose the one thing everyone involved would rather keep covered. What's the real cost of this X rated digital gold rush? In Vegas, Bonnie's supposed to be meeting some of the groupies who make up her nearly 300,000 followers on OnlyFans. They're no doubt frothing about her recent world record attempt, which is her latest thrust on the world stage.
D
Okay, so I wanted to update you on what my body looks like after taking over 1000 men. My eyes not that red and people did not have the best of aims. I was expecting them to be maybe even swollen or very red today, but they're not. My wrists really ache and my legs, on the other hand, they're the ones that are probably taking their, I don't know, most physical battering because they are very bruised and very sore today. But as a whole, it's no difference. Doing a marathon. This is a face of a girl that's taken over 1,000 men and it's already for round two.
A
It's that stunt that has apparently taken a toll on her body, though her team would prefer you not to know that because they're worried that people will think that she's sick because of the stunt. I've flown to LA because I want to get a glimpse behind the mask. She seems very in on the joke and she also seems like she's kind of thrilled with the backlash. I want to see who the real person is behind this tabloid villain character that she's become over the past year.
D
Take.
A
It to the streets.
B
My pleasure.
C
Cheers.
A
Emma. Hello, Fantasy. I know that's Emma Gilman, Bonnie's publicist. She's standing inside the airport lounge as the flight crew fuss around with luggage and paperwork. This petite, no nonsense, 20 something with a blonde bob represents a stable of adult content creators and is responsible for getting them as many headlines as possible. When it comes to Bonnie, Emma has helped orchestrate her ascent to global tabloid fixture, courting media attention with sex stunts and inflammatory remarks. While Bonnie's in the us, Emma's frantically trying to schedule press appearances. Their mission is to crack the American market and build her profile like they've done in the UK and Australia.
B
So we're in Vegas and then after Vegas, we're going to head to Houston for Fox News. Then we're going to maybe go to Miami if we can get some media secured there. And we have barstool sports locked in and the Mirror us.
A
What's going to happen on Fox News?
B
You know, I can't say what I want to say, but I will look like she's done very controversial media before. She's done like Good Morning Britain and, you know, she's had some pretty big grillings from Australian and British news presenters. I actually find Fox News, while it's obviously, you know, right leaning and controversial, I think that she might even get more of a sympathetic view in. We basically saw, yeah, Fox News had covered her a few weeks ago and as we were planning the trip, I just reached out to the team and said, hey, if you'd like to have her in studio, we can come past. And the host of it who I was talking to, he was a massive fan. He on the show was like, man, if I was 18, I would have loved Barney Blue. So I think it'll actually be more of a chill one. But hey, like, it could go anywhere.
A
What do you look for in those kinds of media appointments? Are you looking for a moment?
C
Yeah.
B
I mean, Bonnie just makes moments like she's not thinking, she just does and, you know, I'll always prep her, but she's pretty comfortable on the fly. Really what we want is to break that US market, which is why we're doing a few weeks. She's got such a massive market in the UK and Australia. We really just want to build that here. So, you know, if I can do something, I'd love like a Candace Owens, I'd love like a Joe Rogan. They're sort of the areas where we're going to be pushing for. But, yeah, it's whatever pops up and things just keep popping up. I've got a lot of people inquiring. Since it's just off the back of the world record.
A
Emma seems to be mapping a blueprint to ensure Bonnie's world domination. These TV and podcast appearances have become her bread and butter. Bonnie says something provocative and it feeds the news cycle for days. Sort of like a hypersexual Piers Morgan. But is all publicity, good publicity? That depends. It seems the team only wants the kind of media attention that suits their carefully created image of Bonnie. And this act is playing out right in front of me as we wait in the airport lounge. After Emma agreed to let me come to America and record this podcast, certain restrictions began to pop up. They don't want to listeners knowing Bonnie's sick, but how am I supposed to explain why she's missing from a podcast that's supposed to be following her? And they don't want me asking about Bonnie's personal life or family, even though her little sister, Summer Billinger, is standing just metres away from me. Only days ago, she officially joined Bonnie's entourage as a paid member of staff.
E
I literally just quit my job at a supermarket about two weeks ago.
A
Why'd you quit the job at the supermarket?
E
Well, I didn't want to. I really didn't want to because I loved it. I really loved it there. I loved other people. But I always thought to myself, I can probably in my life save up to go to la, but I'm never in my life saving up to go on a private jet. Never.
A
Summer is 21, but could be mistaken for a high schooler. She looks more like the kind of girl you'd see hanging out with her friends at a movie theater. There's not even the slightest tinge of her sister's va va voom vampiness. Summer has the sweet outlook, gleeful optimism and wide eyed innocence of a child. This new world her big sister has escorted her into is nothing like her old life back home in England. At the supermarket, she shrieks at the mention of sex acts and gets flustered at the new luxuries Bonnie has granted her.
E
The first day of my job, I had to try on Louis Vuitton dresses, drink champagne, have cocktails. Such a hard day, it was so tiring.
A
There's still some question marks around her addition to Team Bonnie. What exactly will she be doing?
E
I've not got a set thing that I'm gonna do, but as soon as we find something that I can do, that's what I'll be doing. I think it's weird though, because obviously then my sister will be paying me. I don't want to miss it. I'll be like, tell me to do something. No, I don't want to. But obviously I can't do that.
B
She pays everyone. She's running with family salaries.
E
Oh, yeah?
B
Yeah. Mum, dad, you.
A
Do you mind asking an intimate question? Like how much is the salary?
E
Oh, I don't know yet.
B
She just takes us in the account.
A
Then there's Bonnie's manager, Ollie.
C
We do quite well in Bonnie's team.
A
Who'S trying his best to seem in control of the logistics and schedule.
C
Sorry, could you send me the details of the plane?
A
He's an affable but unremarkable bloke who wouldn't seem out of place on one of those British reality shows about young people who party and drink and tan and fight.
C
The car rental?
B
Yeah.
C
Says he'll bring it, like.
B
Yeah.
A
When it comes to Ollie, not everything is as it seems.
C
No, we didn't get the Lamborghini cuz you had to be 30 years old. So they wouldn't let me. They wouldn't let me drive it, so I got a Range Rover in. It was the blue cyber truck or. I didn't fancy driving that, to be fair, so we got the Range Rover. I have a Range Rover at home, so I'm used to that. But the Lamborghini would have been cool. A blue Lamborghini on brand.
A
Emma sticks to her publicity duties, hovering around and monitoring what's being said.
B
Summer and Ollie have never spoken to.
A
Media and that's because there's another secret they're trying to hide. The team is murky about Ollie's identity. I glance down at his luggage and the bag tags spell out his name in bold black font. Ollie Davidson. Both he and Emma seem to be hoping. I haven't seen the recent gossip articles reporting that he's Bonnie's husband or ex husband. Are they secretly still together? Inside this airport lounge, it becomes clear Bonnie's team think they can present a version of their Pawn Star boss that won't be questioned, even though the truth of her real life is standing right in front of me. Is Bonnie kind of your exclusive client?
C
Yeah, she's my only client. Yeah.
A
How did you start managing her?
C
I've known her quite a long time, so we've got quite a unique relationship. So I don't know what I could say on this.
A
Pardon? You keep it subtle.
C
Yeah.
A
Are you guys exes?
C
I don't want to say that on.
A
Sure, yeah. You knew each other.
C
Known each other 10 years.
A
So, like, how did it come about for you? Like, was it just then a natural progression? Her business started blowing up and she trusted you, so it just was normal.
C
And she, after she was doing her like on cam websites, she needed help starting an only Fans. So I looked into it. I didn't know anything about only Fans management, so I looked at, on YouTube, how to. How you're meant to run an account, how to just teach myself. Yeah, the truth is that we, we did used to. She's my ex. But I don't want that out there because the press do.
B
They've been doing a lot of like, digging.
C
Yeah. And they've been going after like my family and stuff and there's like a few things that have gone out recently.
A
Just days earlier, a tabloid news website wrote a story alleging Ollie was appalled with his ex wife following her world record gang bang. But in this airport hangar, as the private jet rolls closer, Ollie doesn't seem perturbed or disgraced with Bonnie's choices or the money that's now flooding in because of those choices. He's dripping with designer labels, from the Gucci sunglasses on top of his head to the Louis Vuitton shoes on his feet.
C
It's a Dolce and Gabbana jacket, LV shirt. And I've got a Rolex Daytona on in yellow gold and a Bulgari ring as well.
A
And how much was the Rolex?
C
55,000 US. Yeah, we got it actually whilst Rover in California. So it was quite an amazing moment to get. Get that. We've achieved a lot together.
A
While Ollie says he wants to stay out of the press for privacy reasons, there's another factor at play. It's better for business.
C
A lot of people get very angry if there's like a man behind her. So as her manager and then also Josh as her videographer, we kind of try and stay in the background. Obviously Josh is on screen a lot, but with her type of content and her saying barely legal and sort of some of the slogans that she says. People don't like the idea that there's men in the background helping her out. We'd get a lot of hate, you know, so we try and stay out the public eye. The sort of hate online is pretty extreme, you know, death threats and the media trying to kind of track down family members, friends going to their dresses, trying to find out dirt and there's a lot of lies in the.
A
What kind of dirt are they trying to dig for? Suddenly, the doors of the lounge swing open and the sound of the whirling jet engine whooshes in. As the entourage strolls out to the tarmac, Emma, Sarah, Summer and Ollie start posing in front of the slick black aircraft taking photos of each other before climbing the metal steps and rushing aboard to explore the luxury cabin. With its lacquered wood grain surfaces and cream leather upholstery. It's clearly a big day for team Bonnie. To them, chartering a private jet for the first time is proof they've finally made it. I'm gonna put your bags right over here.
B
Thank you.
C
Like a little bag cubby area. This is so sick. This is amazing. I've been on business. Bonnie flies first. I, I fly business. But yeah, it's, it's pretty cool.
E
It's amazing. It's so cool. It's so cool. Just a good out of the bathroom.
A
I'm your captain today. We'll be on our way in a few minutes. There's usually flow into Vegas, but it shouldn't be an issue. It's Tuesday, so should be, should be pretty quick.
E
Thank you. Thank you.
A
Did you want to try some Korean juice from Air1?
B
Yeah, yeah, I'll try.
A
As the team gushes over the array of pastries, nuts and bespoke juices from hip la grocery store store Erewhon, they reflect on how their lives have drastically changed with Bonnie since she pivoted into being a full time porn star about one year ago.
C
The last six months she's blown up beyond belief. You know, as in there was one point when she was the most talked about woman in the world and in terms of onlyfans subscriptions and the money that she's making is, it's insane. So anyone that's working with her, their lives have been changed, at least for the foreseeable future. So going on private jets, nice clothes, nice cars, it's a completely different life to what we had before.
A
I ask Ollie how much money Bonnie has made in the past year since business started booming. He gets nervous and says he doesn't want to reveal an exact amount because he's concerned the UK's tax department will find out.
C
I can't really feel, because I don't know if HMRC are listening, but it is millions, right? Yeah.
A
Like how many millions are we talking? In the past year?
C
It's, it's, it's over 7 million.
A
Wow. In a year. And do you see it as like uncapped earnings or like, is there a reason on it?
C
I'd say uncapped to an extent.
A
She.
C
She can easily earn over a million in a month. So, you know, if you think of that, it's 12 million a year. But at the moment, like this month, after the, you know, 1057 world record. It's projected to be anywhere between 1.4 to 2 million in one month.
A
And that's for the World Record challenge.
C
That's the world record. All the extra sort of traffic from how it's blown up on social media.
A
At the time of this interview. Just one week after the World record gang bang. The footage hasn't been posted yet. Rumours are already starting to swirl among industry rivals and critics, with some suggesting Bonnie is lying about actually having slept with 1,057 men in 12 hours. If she had, then where are the tapes? But on this private jet, Ollie doesn't seem concerned. He's busy calculating the estimated earnings.
C
But, you know, before then she'd be making between 6 and 800k per month. So when it levels out, we think it could definitely level out a million per month. So she could very easily earn 15 million or more, more. And that's what really expects in a calendar year.
A
That's a lot of money he's talking about. And it's better for Bonnie's anti hero image if it's reported that she has endless streams of cash flowing in, that she's reaping the rewards of riches for her naughty behaviour. Despite worldwide criticism, I later ask Bonnie's team if I can look at documentation that supports these claims of eye watering annual earnings, but no luck. Still, $30,000, private jets and designer clothes don't just pay for themselves. And how long do you kind of expect that to go on? Like, is it something sustainable or does Bonnie have a plan of like, I want to be done, you know, with this in like X amount of years and just retire?
C
No, she. It's only been a year and she really, really genuinely enjoys her job.
A
But there is a grand scheme in motion. Ollie seems to suggest the past year of scandal has all been a strategy to turn Bonnie into a household name so she can then pursue her goal of becoming a TV host.
C
She would like to move into, you know, sort of more mainstream media once she has finished with Porn and Onlyfans, but that's no time soon. There's no, there's no limit on that.
A
What kind of mainstream stuff does she want to get into?
C
We've got a lot of ideas and plans in the works, but she'd like to have her own TV show.
A
And what would the show be about?
C
It would definitely be based around sex, but obviously there's only so much that you can have on tv. But there's without revealing too much, that there's a lot of ideas that we have but it would sort of incorporate her personality. So there's only so much we could say at the moment.
A
This is all a giant shift from the life Ollie and Bonnie were living on the Gold coast just a few years ago. The pair were high school sweethearts and got married young before moving from the UK to the hazy beaches of Australia. On the glitter strip, Bonnie was working in recruitment and got bored with the monotony of a regular office job.
C
She performed very well and she had a very good salary, but it was, it was a very stressful life, sort of working seven till seven most days and then, then she goes to the gym in the evening. So it never felt that she had sort of quality of life. It was like she lived to work, not work, to live.
A
This pivot into porn is not an original story. In recent years, it's almost become a well worn trope, one that's retold by many adult content creators who have left behind the obligations and commitments of their regular old lives to try their luck at making a fortune by fornicating for Bonnie. She soon gave up her 9 to 5 job and started dabbling as a cam girl in X rated Internet chat rooms before expanding to only fans. She wanted more of everything bigger, bolder, bluer.
E
I see her all the time on my phone and all social media, but it doesn't feel any different though. I see her like, oh yeah, that's my sister. Carry on. Doesn't feel any or no, very different. But when I see a face, it doesn't like, oh my God, she's on my phone. It just feels a bit normal.
B
Yeah.
C
Every time you go on the few.
E
Days, every time I go on my TikTok, it's just so it's just normal now, just seeing her face.
A
While we chat, Summer struggles with referring to her sister by her stage name. Instead, she breaks Emma's publicity protocol and calls her by her real name, Tia. I ask Summer about their relationship and how close they are. How frequently do you guys hang out or like chat on the phone and like do all that stuff?
E
No, I'm gonna say a lot more recently, but we never used to speak as much all the time. To be fair, I probably spoke to Ollie more than I speak to myself. Actually. No, I don't think. Could I say that? Probably not.
A
It's at this point Ollie jumps in and asks if I can show him this podcast before I publish it so he can flag revelations they don't want included. I tell him no and then take a sip of my Erewhon Green Juice. It's clear the team seems more comfortable talking about the alter ego of Bonnie and her fortune rather than the real life of Tia Billinger. Summer mentions she found out through social media that her sister had recently flown to Paris for the sole purpose of buying a designer dress. Ollie and Emma seem relieved at the superficial topic change.
C
£15,000.
A
She was picking up a £15,000 dress.
B
One of a kind from Louis Vuitton.
E
Yeah, that was it.
B
There for six hours.
E
Yeah, just a quick session. Six hour trip to Paris as you do normal, normal stuff.
A
Bonnie dropped around 31,000 Aussie dollars on the dress that Ollie says was a one of a kind gown that featured in a recent Louis Vuitton Runway show. After strutting into the luxury brand store with her stylist named Hermes, Bonnie even argued with the Parisian staff members and demanded they breach company procedure by altering it to be more revealing. After all, she'd be wearing it to the porn awards in Vegas at the end of this week, where she's nominated for Independent Female Creator of the Year. In keeping with the tone of such an event, this dress needed to be tres risque. It also needed to send a strong message to her rivals.
C
I very much doubt, looking at some of the other porn stars like Riley Reid or, I don't know, Lana Rhodes, who, whoever's attended before, I don't think they've wore something quite like a one of one LV dress. So she's going to look very, very unique and very classy for the event. She also bought some very expensive diamonds to wear as well for the awards.
A
How much were the diamonds?
C
The diamond necklace is about £70,000. So yeah, she, she again, it was the. When she got back from Paris, she was in London and she just decided, I think I need like, you know, something that's really going to stand out if she gets on stage.
A
But even the most cashed up porn star knows it's not good economics to buy such an expensive piece of jewelry that will only be worn for one event. So ensuring she gets adequate cost per wear out of this diamond necklace, Bonnie has also sported it elsewhere during her recent world record gang bang.
C
There's a thousand men's fluids all over these diamonds and I have a picture of it and I can show you afterwards. But all the diamonds obviously at the very start because all the different lights, the ring lights or the box lights that are around, you can see them glass glistening the whole time. Then towards the end they're so dull and a picture of them afterwards and all the Diamonds have just gone yellow and yeah, we had to get them clean just before she flew out and now, now they look perfect and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I, I didn't tell the cleaner what was on it. She was like, you know, what, what, what's on this? And she was like looking at it and then I couldn't tell her that it's a thousand men's come. You can't, you can't go into a diamond dealer and, and say, can you clean the cum off this 70 grand necklace? But no, it's all sorted and we've got it all clean for her.
A
For a moment, it seems Ollie is telling this story as if it's a relatable scenario we've all faced in our day to day jobs. I ask if he ever dreamt that one day he'd be able to brag on his CV that his skills include getting semen encrusted diamonds professionally cleaned.
C
Yeah, I never know what stories are interesting because everything in her life is crazy. Every day is different and obviously being around her, it becomes normal.
A
Speaking of things that have become the new normal, Summer pulls out her phone and sees her screen flooded with Snapchat notifications about her sister.
E
Oh, there she is again.
C
She's not even on Snapchat.
E
So there she's again. Oh, there she's again again.
C
Oh, the whole of Snapchat is just Bonnie Blue.
E
3, 4, 5, 6.
C
Have you got some awards?
E
Yes, please.
A
As the flight attendant serves champagne, I ignore Emma's instruction to avoid the topic of Bonnie's personal life and try inching closer to the subject. Asking Summer how her sister's controversial explosion in the headlines has affected their family. With Bonnie's face flooding social media feeds, what do her friends make of it?
E
I don't really have many friends, so I don't really. And I don't really talk about it a lot with. Because not like I'm not bothered, but I'm not bothered what anyone's. I'm not bothered what their opinions are. So unless it's a good one, I'm not interested in knowing if it's negative.
A
Summer and Ollie say they're more concerned with the media attention Bonnie has been receiving and the backlash that has gone beyond run of the mill trolling in the comment sections.
C
She gets death threats daily and it means when we go and do events or any sort of area where she might be exposed, we do employ security to watch her and follow her sort of highly trained professionals. It's not just like a bouncer, they. You Know it's ex special forces that are employed to follow her and make sure that she's okay, do a risk assessment and make sure that she's okay wherever she goes.
A
What's been the scariest situation that's come of all of this?
C
So, yeah, her car being robbed, which was definitely targeted. They've been watching her and her team for days. Also, when she got back from Paris, she was getting into a car with multiple Louis Vuitton bags and they put it in the boot. And then when she got in the car, there was a group of lads that went and tried to like open the boot and steal all the stuff out the back. Oh, and then a phone got robbed when she did the Freshers event. There was a lot of content that was on that phone and the lads stole it. Made an Instagram account saying, I've got Bonnie Blue's phone, tried to extort her for money, which we didn't respond to.
A
And Summer, as her sister, like, how does hearing that kind of stuff make you feel? Like the dangerous situations.
E
Yeah, no, it was pretty scary. Scary. It's a bit scary to think that some people are that bothered about someone that they'd go to the extremes. Like the things they do. Like I could never imagine disliking someone that much to even text someone. Cuz then you do care. You got, oh, I don't care. And you say. But then you do. If you go, you texting them, you, you hit a nerve. So many people have put our family address on the Internet and then you see the comments and there's like hundreds of comments and then people, oh well, they don't actually live there anymore. Yeah, we do, we do. And it's not what we do. Live there. Where else do I live?
A
Ollie says the sense of danger intensified after Bonnie started marketing the content she was filming with 18 year old school graduates as barely legal. A tagline that for decades has been its own genre in the porn industry, used to describe content featuring performers who are of legal age but look like teens. In its 2015 report of search statistics, Pornhub, the biggest pornography website in the world, listed the teen category as the second most popular genre in the world. In recent years, the company has stopped including the categories in its annual reports. The thing is, these genres are usually centred around mature men chasing young women. When Bonnie latched on to the barely legal phrase, there was something about her brazenness, audaciousness and maybe even arrogance that rubbed people the wrong way. She was accused by commentators of being an opportunistic predator preying on young men whose frontal lobes weren't yet fully developed. Some even took the Barely Legal tagline to mean her recruitment of young men wasn't above board. Ollie insists Bonnie's practices adhere to the rules.
C
Her whole thing is they have to come with an ID, they have to sign consent forms, OnlyFans checks, you know, billion dollar company, they check everything, everything's 18 plus and everything's checked. So anything to do with underage, it's just wrong and not what she represents.
A
In a way, the Barely Legal stunts that have catapulted Bonnie to notoriety are a role reversal of Girls Gone Wild, the scandalous franchise from the 90s and 2000s that capitalised on amateur exhibitionism. The phenomenon was an early precursor to today's creator economy, blurring exploitation with empowerment, where participants who signed release forms received little more than a T shirt while founder Joe Francis amassed millions. For the Barely Legal boys who play with Bonnie, they don't receive a T shirt or a slice of the millions of dollars that she claims to earn from the antics, but they do get bragging rights and maybe some regrets once they grow up. At the time, Girls Gone Wild was almost viewed as a sexy larkish punchline, not something to be taken seriously. It's only recently that the franchise and its problematic ways have been reassessed and criticised. How will Bonnie's brand of tit for tat sexual role reversal be viewed in the future? Bonnie's publicist, Emma, has her own spin.
B
People really, really hate what she does. I see that constantly, but ultimately, I think definitely from my perspective, she's not doing anything wrong. People don't like that she is capitalizing on the public appetite to hate a woman. But what she does can open up really interesting conversations about consistent and why power imbalances can be varied. I can totally understand when people's criticism comes down to not really loving the Barely Legal comment, but I think that what I want from her in 2025 is the opportunity to keep having conversations that make people angry, but also are really useful for public discourse because we have such a wide audience and it's always a balance between. Between how can we go viral on social and how can we kind of prolong her brand for 10, 20, 30 years?
A
But today, just for a moment, the team is not worrying about what will happen over the next few decades. They stretch out in their leather chairs, take selfies and talk about money.
C
You know, obviously it's completely different from being on a private jet. We've never done that. But, you know, let's say flying. It used to just be economy. Now just business is normal. You know, driving cars. She has a Range Rover svr. She's just bought a Ferrari.
A
Oh, no. The plane just took off and everyone's Air1 green juices just spilled across the walnut table.
B
Good to know.
A
Oh, no. Are you okay? Summer? It's in your what? Oh, it's in Japan. As the private jet shoots up into the Californian sky, all the glamour is sucked out as Summer's Air One green juice flies off the table and spills up her short black $80 dress. It shouldn't come as a surprise that in the world of Bonnie Blue, you can be sprayed with all kinds of liquid at any given moment. Next time on Sex, Lies and Streaming. Hi, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Las Vegas. Thanks for enjoying your private flight. Current temperature outside is about 50 degrees. Light winds out of the north and it's clear skies. Enjoy your time at the Oscar, sport, and welcome to Vegas. When you're hunting someone who's made a career out of exposure, what happens when they suddenly want to hide what was supposed to be an exclusive city sit down interview with Bonnie Blue suddenly turns into a manhunt across America, taking me from the sunny Hollywood hills to the neon soaked underbelly of Las Vegas, where porn stars and porn addicts mingle at the industry's biggest convention inside a desert casino.
C
At one point, I was spending hundreds a week on different platforms subscribing to this, subscribing to that.
A
Got out, got out of hand. How much were you spending in a week? At its worst.
C
Worst?
A
Yeah.
C
£300 a week.
A
Can you make anything sound sexy when you use that voice?
B
Oh, for sure.
A
Can you say, I need to go get my Nissan Patrol serviced and then I need to go to the supermarket to pick up milk.
D
I'm going to take my car, go for a service, you know what I mean?
B
I've been paid like 200 bucks to send a guy a video of me farting on camera.
D
I had to tell the fan that it's incredibly inappropriate to call my room and secondly, you know, say, I'm so sorry, but we're not in a relationship and you've been speaking to a catfish for many months.
A
It's here where I unknowingly parachute into the middle of a war with Bonnie's army of enemies on one side and her legion of young copycats on the other, all desperately trying to crack the code of Internet infamous me and get rich quick by gambling their sexuality.
C
You gotta be careful.
A
You know because it can backfire.
C
Your story better be real because all.
A
It takes is one person to find.
C
Out it's not, and the dominoes will fall.
D
I earn over a thousand pounds an hour. I'm the one with the most views. I'm the one that goes private all the time.
A
It's nearing midnight and Bonnie emerges from the theater after the annual Porn awards. Her arms are crossed, her team's lacking energy and. Oh, hi. You seem disappointed to see me.
B
Always doesn't wanted to see you.
A
Why? What happened inside? That's next time on Sex, Lies and streaming. Thanks for listening. You can read more from me on news.com and find me on Facebook if you want to let me know your thoughts about this series. This show was written and hosted by me. My executive producer is Nina Young. Sound design and editing by Tiffany Dimmack. Additional production assistants by Phoebe Zukowski Wallace. A big thanks to Kerry Warren, the editor of news.com for her support for the show.
Host: James Weir
Date: October 12, 2025
Podcast by: news.com.au
The premiere of Witness Season 3, "Sex, Lies and Streaming," launches an in-depth investigation into the OnlyFans creator economy through the chaotic, headline-grabbing life of British adult content creator Bonnie Blue (real name: Tia Billinger). What is pitched as a routine interview with Bonnie about her latest viral stunt – allegedly sleeping with over 1,000 men in 12 hours – quickly spirals into a fascinating, sometimes dark exposé of the adult industry’s inner workings, power plays, and personal costs. As host James Weir tries to track down the elusive Bonnie during a trip from LA to Las Vegas, he unearths the complex machinery behind her rise to internet infamy and the careful curation (and manipulation) fueling fortunes in the X-rated digital gold rush.
The episode is equal parts tabloid sensationalism, sharp media critique, and behind-the-velvet-rope feature. James Weir’s tone is alternately sardonic and probing, pushing through the PR facade to uncover human cost, cultural shifts, and the ethically murky reality beneath viral fame.
“A Diva Disappears” sets up Sex, Lies and Streaming as both exposé and adventure, thrusting listeners into the glitzy but volatile world of internet sex work. Promises of fame, fortune, and female empowerment clash with strategic manipulation and personal risk as James attempts to separate Bonnie’s “brand” from her real life—all while chasing a story that keeps shifting just out of reach.
For more details or exclusive content, visit news.com.au.