OnlyFans creator Michael Doherty has hit delete on his account after five years on the platform, and he already knows what comes next: chickens, gardening, and one day a pilot’s licence.
The 24-year-old announced the decision on Instagram on 28 October, telling followers it was a move he had been weighing up for years. “I’ve waited a while to make this decision. Today I quit and deleted my OnlyFans accounts,” he wrote, as reported by Attitude.
Why he walked away
Doherty, who according to Attitude joined OnlyFans in 2021 based on Fanstats data, didn’t dress the announcement up as a dramatic exit. Instead, he was candid about how the job had started to feel.
“It has been a huge burden on my heart, soul and mind over the last few years,” he wrote. He added that the account “has distracted me and made me comfortable”.
Attitude reports that he described the platform as a source of pleasure that never quite delivered the “real success” he was after. He hasn’t shared what he earned.
It isn’t the first time he has spoken openly about the realities of the work. On the Say It, Slay It podcast in 2024, he said: “When you do only fans you’re looked at in a different way.”
Next stop: the cockpit
So what’s the plan? According to Attitude, Doherty wants to become a pilot, which he describes as a childhood dream. He also says he wants to start a family and find love.
Closer to home, he’s putting his energy into his friends, his family, his garden and his chickens. That’s quite a change of pace from the subscriber inbox.
Family has been part of his public story before. Attitude reports that when he came out at 18, his parents “weren’t very happy” at first, but they “lightened up to it” within about a month.
He’s far from the only creator planning an exit
Leaving the platform on your own terms is becoming its own kind of headline. Plenty of creators now talk openly about having a number, a timeline or a next career in mind, rather than staying online for ever.
The maths explains a lot. Fans spent $7.84 billion on OnlyFans in the year to 30 November 2025, and creators took home about $6.29 billion after the platform’s 20 per cent cut, according to IBTimes UK’s analysis of parent company Fenix International’s accounts.
Spread across the 5.06 million registered creator accounts, that works out at roughly $1,250 a year each, IBTimes UK calculates. The headline-making millionaires are real, but they sit at the very top of a steep pyramid. We’ve broken down who really earns the most on OnlyFans before.
For most creators, it’s a side income or a stepping stone, not a forever job. Doherty is simply saying that part out loud.
The creator angle: how to leave well
Whether you’re five months or five years in, Doherty’s exit is a good prompt to think about your own off-ramp. A few practical things worth doing before you hit delete:
- Download everything first. Save your earnings statements, payout history and any content you own before the account disappears. You’ll want them later.
- Keep your tax records. In the UK, HMRC says self-employed people must keep records for at least five years after the 31 January Self Assessment deadline for that tax year. Closing your account doesn’t close your tax obligations.
- Think about your CV story. Being “looked at in a different way” is a real worry, and some employers still react badly. Our guide to whether you can legally be fired for having an OnlyFans account is a useful read before you move into a new industry.
- Plan the money bridge. Training for a new career, whether that’s flying or anything else, usually costs money before it makes any. A savings buffer from your creator years can fund the jump. Plenty of creators, like this one who went from three jobs to £73,600 a month, talk about OnlyFans as the thing that bought them choices.
- Tell your audience. Doherty went public on Instagram, which keeps the relationship with followers he’s built, even without the paywall.
Quitting doesn’t mean the creator years were wasted. For a lot of people, they’re what pays for the next chapter.
For Doherty, that next chapter starts at ground level, with the garden and the chickens. If the pilot dream comes off, we’d quite like to be on that flight.
