OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky dies at 43

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky has died aged 43 after a long battle with cancer, the UK company said on Monday.

The Ukrainian-American entrepreneur acquired Fenix International, the company that owns and operates the UK porn streaming platform, in 2018.

He remained a director and the majority shareholder of the company, whose strong performance has been fuelled by demand for its adult content, making it one of the UK’s biggest but most controversial tech successes.

OnlyFans has transformed the porn industry by offering content creators a platform to reach their audience directly and taking a 20 per cent cut of the revenues. The content creators, mostly adult entertainers, keep the remaining 80 per cent.

Florida-based Radvinsky was regularly paid one of the largest dividends issued by any private company in the UK, where OnlyFans remained based despite making the bulk of its profit in the US.

The reclusive Ukrainian acquired the business from British father and son Guy and Tim Stokely, who founded the platform in 2016.

OnlyFans paid out a record $701 million (€604 million) in dividends last year alone to the Ukraine-born billionaire. It also pays corporation tax in the UK.

Radvinsky had been in talks over a potential multibillion-dollar sale of a majority stake in the streaming platform. In 2022, he considered taking OnlyFans public via a blank-cheque vehicle, although the deal was never completed.

Since 2024, his shares in the company have been held in a trust.

“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky. Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer,” the company said. “His family have requested privacy at this difficult time.”

Since the site was founded in 2016, OnlyFans has paid out more than $25 billion (€21.56 billion) to creators. Last year, it generated $7.2 billion (€6.2 billion) from the “fans” that use their site, which pay subscriptions to the content creators as well as offer tips and payment for special requests.

Celebrities also use the platform to make money from their fans, including the tennis player Nick Kyrgios and the singer Kate Nash.

In 2022, OnlyFans backed down from a plan to ban porn from its platform to focus on its “safe for work” content from sports stars and celebrities, with many workers in the adult industry relying heavily on it to make their living.