Sopranos actress Drea de Matteo has praised OnlyFans for ‘saving her life’ after her refusal to have the COVID vaccine cost her acting gigs and left her with just $10 in her bank account.

While Drea, 52, was initially reluctant to join the adult subscription service last year, she has now revealed her racy uploads proved so lucrative that she managed to save her home from foreclosure within just five minutes of joining – and has even launched her own business.

The actress, who has been carb-loading to get in shape for the money shots, also revealed how, as well as nearly losing her house, she had run out of money to support a parent with dementia.

‘It saved us,’ she told DailyMail.com exclusively. ‘OnlyFans saved my life, 100 per cent. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it really did save us.’

Sopranos actress Drea de Matteo has cited OnlyFans with saving her and her family.

The Sopranos actress joined the platform in August when she had just $10 in her bank account and was on the brink of losing her home.

Tearing up, she continued: ‘Anybody that wants to condemn me and put me down, go for it. I just hope you never find yourself in the position I was in to take care of two little kids.

‘It saved my home of many years that was very important to us. And beyond all that, it has given me enough money to start up and finance ULTRAFREE.’

Drea had just $10 in her bank account when she started her OnlyFans account.

She had found herself in a perilous financial situation after taking a forbearance to help with her mortgage repayments, but ultimately couldn’t afford the astronomical sum that she owed collectors.

‘They put me into foreclosure and my house had flooded, so I was trying to sell the house quickly,’ she said. ‘I wanted to try and sell it before they took it.

‘At the same time, I lost my mom, and my other mom, who has dementia, had run out of money for her caregiver. I didn’t know which way was up.’

But it didn’t take long for Drea to start raking in big, life-saving money on OnlyFans.

‘I kept putting more pictures up,’ she recalled.

She revealed that she was able to make enough money in five minutes to pay back her debts

‘I was like, holy sh*t. In five minutes, I was able to pay back compass real estate who kept the sale of my house.’

But turning to the platform was initially not something that Drea wanted to do. And in fact, when she first toyed with the idea, it was because she and her husband had thought about joining to create a quasi-podcast.

‘I did it, but I didn’t want to do it,’ she admitted. ‘I got a lot of heat for doing it and it went f*cking viral and people went nuts.

‘I mean, the original premise to open the OnlyFans was Robbie and I were gonna do a podcast on there that was controversial. We wanted to put it behind a paywall so to not be destroyed in the media for it.

‘That was what it was going to be originally, you know, like with him rubbing my feet because you have to add a little something for OnlyFans in there.’

Drea, pictured with James Gandolfini, shot to fame on the acclaimed drama The Sopranos

Drea played Adriana La Cerva in The Sopranos for seven years between 1999 and 2006

Although Drea joined OnlyFans out of sheer necessity, she has grown to love it and has found a new sense of an empowerment – and she isn’t planning on giving it up anytime soon.

‘It feels good to see those photos,’ she enthused.

‘They might be touched up here and there but the truth is they videotape me going live when we do the photoshoot so fans can see the photo shoot happening in real time.

‘For the most part like I look good, and the best part about it is I get to be heavier. I don’t look good in the pictures if I’m skinny. Before photo shoot, I get to eat and eat. I get to bulk up to look better.’

Revealing her surprising pre-photoshoot diet, Drea shared: ‘We’re just carb loading. I’m just being an Italian lady in the world, eating spaghetti and pasta and steak.

‘You want your boobs to be big and your butt to be big. Otherwise, the photos are a snooze fest!’

Drea has launched her very own streetstyle brand ULTRAFREE, which is ‘all about making freedom cool again’

The style of clothing was inspired by Drea’s 12-year-old son, Waylon (pictured)

Besides gaining an abundance of confidence and clearing her debts, Drea has also been able to launch her very own streetwear brand, ULTRAFREE.

The style of clothing was inspired by her 12-year-old son Waylon.

‘He’s a hype beast lunatic, and it works for us because we’re going to be doing a lot of limited run stuff, because some of its handmade in our backyard,’ she shared.

Drea explains that the concept behind the clothing is about making ‘freedom cool again.’

‘Freedom from anything that makes you feel caged in, whether that is a mental illness or physical illness or an ideology,’ she said.

‘God knows ideologies were pushed forward in the last three years have not helped society.

‘The merch is all about like, don’t let them tell you who you are, you already know who you are no matter what.

‘Don’t let anybody keep you small, you don’t need a movement, you just need to be free.’