This is how Ginfreely, Claire and Cloudy can make some pocket money during Covid Pandemic...

[SBFNews]

Sugar baby makes £28,000 from husbands revelling in secret lockdown cam sessions

EXCLUSIVE: University of York student Sherene is benefiting from a huge surge of new members gravitating to the sugar dating industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic

Student Sherene has spent her time indoors working as a sugar baby (Image: Sherene)

A student working as a sugar baby has more than doubled her income since the coronavirus lockdown began as men cooped up inside pay thousands of pounds to chat with her online.

Sherene [not her real name] is plied with expensive shoes, perfumes and UberEats cards by her numerous sugar daddies, who also finance her life as a student with cash transfers.

While one might have thought strict social distancing measures would hurt the practice - which typically involves young women exchanging sexual acts with wealthy older men for money - the industry is booming.

SeekingArrangement, the self-titled 'world's largest sugar dating site', has self-reported a 56% increase in sign-ups in the UK in the two weeks after the lockdown began compared to last year.

The 23-year-old says business is booming (Image: Sherene)

For Sherene, who studies history of art at the University of York, this has translated into a huge jump in the number of men wanting to indulge in illicit Skype sessions with her.

With families stuck at home under penalty of arrest if they don't have a valid excuse for leaving, men are playing a dangerous game when it comes to speaking to the 23-year-old.

"It’s a fun little secret for the married boys and the single dudes just like sending stuff and seeing you in something they picked," Sherene, who is inundated with lingerie sets by her admirers, told Mirror Online.

"I have one client, he’s a QC, and he’s with his wife and older kids and we sext all the time. He says he’s addicted to buying me stuff and seeing me in it.

"His wife thinks he’s on important client calls when he calls me during the day. Like, he literally cannot stop. It’s awesome."

Sherene received Chanel No.5 as a gift (Image: Sherene)

Just some of the underwear her sugar daddies have sent her (Image: Sherene)
Another of her sugar daddies, a CEO called John, has been a trusty source of income since Sherene started as a sugar baby in August last year.

On their first date they enjoyed a meal together, visited York Gallery and took a drive in the countryside.

In return for a £4,000-a-month retainer and regular gifts, Sherene would chat to John about his family, take trips to the city's famous Minster and engage in oral sex with him.

"He talked a lot about his wife which was really boring, and his work, which was also very boring," Sherene explained.

"He's a bit patronising. We kissed a lot. I have my limit which is intercourse itself. We get to almost third base. I don't think his wife knows about me."

Since the lockdown began Sherene and John have had to move their relationship online.

She was once sent a luxury bidet as a gift (Image: Sherene)

The history of art student regularly receives shoes (Image: Sherene)

"He can't video call as much because he's at home with his family so we have to talk at really awkward hours of the morning," she said.

"John is totally into it. He tells me that it puts him on edge.

"It's a little bit of drama and trouble. Sometimes he leaves the door open and says 'my wife could come in.'"

Sherene, whose boyfriend away from sugar dating is studying for a PHD, is clearly the exception and not the rule.

Not only has her monthly income recently increased from £12,000 to £28,000, she is incredibly open about what she's doing and honest when it comes to its issues.

"Maybe I could say the biggest drawbacks are judgement from the oldies and also feeling a little greedy," she said.

"It’s like gambling and not knowing when to stop. It’s an addictive lifestyle for sure.

Sherene's perfume collection (Image: Sherene)

Sherene said the lifestyle is "addictive" (Image: Sherene)

"I’m not saying this because it’s so amazing you’ll get addicted, it’s addictive because everyone that’s in it gets hooked."

While she is one of the few women who is open about her sugar dating, many are involved in secret.

SeekingArrangement claims to have 22million members worldwide, two million of which are sugar babies in the UK.

They are typically vying for 500,000 UK-based sugar daddies on the site, while 150,000 male sugar babies compete for the same men, as well as 14,000 sugar mothers.

Sugar babying is big business in UK universities, with the University of London boasting the most members - 840 - in the country.

Portsmouth, Salford, Kent and Leeds make up the rest of the top five universities in terms of sugar infants.

According to Seeking Arrangement's spokeswoman Kimberley De La Cruz, the average active female sugar baby makes £2,350 a month.

The University of London has the most Seeking Arrangement members in the UK (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Another website which has seen a surge in members since Brits were condemned to the indoors is Next Dating.

It claims to have seen male sign-ups grow by 20% in recent weeks, with a 30% increase in female members.

One long time member is Lola [not her real name], a 24-year-old who lives in Mayfair.

Her introduction to sugar dating came at 19 when a wealthy businessman took her for drinks at the Dorchester.

He drove the Ferrari model she had wanted when she was a child and took her on a helicopter tour of the capital.

Lola has since forged relationships with men who send her gifts and pay her retainers stretching into the thousands of pounds per month.

Unlike Sherene, Lola's sugar babying has been negatively impacted by social isolation measures.

"I have three guys who I talk to regularly," she told Mirror Online.

Lola's first sugar date was at the Dorchester hotel (Image: PA)

"But there's zero gifts at the moment because they're not here. When you have a (financial) arrangement it's not contingent on how often I see them, but (interactions have) definitely declined.

"One of the men is married, one is in a serious relationship. You know that you don't text them on the weekend when they're with their family.

"At the moment every day's a weekend day. You stay up until 3am until they manage to get to the office to talk."

In what she self-knowingly describes as her "illustrious career", Lola has twice been contacted by the troubled spouses of her sugar fathers.

"I have got that woman-to-woman long paragraph text message about how awful the whole situation is," she said.

"One time it was on the telephone. I know a lot of women who have been in that situation, you are sympathetic, but I think it's a conversation they should have with their husband.

"The arrangement is a symptom not the cause. I have never in my life been involved with the boyfriend or a husband of a friend."

Lola lives in high-end Mayfair in London (Image: The Wharf)

Asked whether she would recommend sugar dating to others, Lola - who attended a private school and describes herself as "upper-middle class" - is hesitant.

She said: "I know a few people that love it, but I've seen it be very detrimental to a lot of girls. I'm very pragmatic about it.

"If you understand the situation, and aren't naive, it's fun and relatively safe and doesn't hurt anyone."

As for her future, Lola says she will give up sugar dating when she's "in a relationship that leads to marriage when he will take over the finances."

Although her father does not know about her sugar dating, her mum is supportive.

"She took it really well when I told her," Lola said.

"She said it makes sense with your personality, considering where you are with your career and what you want financially."

The burning question that hangs over the industry and the heads of some of the sugar children and parents is whether it is sex work.

Kimberley De La Cruz argues that the term is unsuitable.

"I wouldn't call it sex work at all," she said.

"At the end of a day it's a dating site. Sometimes they're going to have sex afterwards, but it's not transactional in nature.

"It's not like escorting or prostitution. It's more like how you might be intimate with your partner."

When asked whether the up-tick in members was due to the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, Kimberley said: "I think some people might have that idea in their mind, get a sugar daddy and you will get your rent on time, but they won't be successful.

"They won't have much luck with the men here. They're looking for a connection and a relationship, although the men on our site are very generous and chivalrous. "

Her denial of the sex worker label is not one everybody is happy to make.

Speaking at the World Without Exploitation Youth Summit in 2018 Julianny Monegro, a higher education ambassador, warned that sugar dating was not without its risks.

"I think a lot of women don’t realize the position that they’re placing themselves in, and the subjugation that they’re sort of willing to go through to have a man pay for their things,” she told The New York Post.

“There is a power imbalance between the man and the woman,” Laura Ramirez, program coordinator for the Coalition against Trafficking in Women said.

Lauren Hersh, national director of World Without Exploitation, added: “Very often it’s sexual violence and physical violence… When there’s a price tag, very often the buyer feels that they can do whatever, whenever and however.”