Meet Sleazy Michael. He’s a 59-year-old male escort from Cambridge who appeared in a recent episode of The Sex Business in the U.K.
Before becoming a sex worker 13 years ago, Michael says he lived a “very nice middle-class lifestyle.” That is until his wife discovered pictures of him engaging in gay sex acts on the family computer and chased him around the kitchen with a knife.
“For 23 years I was like a time bomb about to go off,” he tells Pink News. “I had to repress that desire to have sex with guys.”
After being kicked out of the house, Michael was free to explore his sexuality openly. And that’s when he discovered escorting.
“The way it happened was all organic,” he says. “I’ve got a very high sex drive, and my attitude is that I love having sex, so it’s a bonus if I get paid for it.”
“If I hadn’t been in the closet all those years, maybe I would never have become an escort.”
Michael quit his job with a railway company and began selling his body. Today he makes £100 an hour and says he feels totally fulfilled.
“It’s awesome, being my own boss. I do things and I see their eyes light up.”
Michael says he usually one or two clients per week. Of those clients, he estimates that around 80% are married and that “99% are fantastic and respectful–we’re both giving something to each other.”
“I’m helping them to fulfill a fantasy,” he says. “What I do probably saves some marriages because if they didn’t go to a male escort to live out their fantasy, the alternative is that they start having an affair… It helps keep them going, you know?”
He continues, “I’ve had some virgins and it feels so amazing because they’re never going to forget it. I’m very gentle and never cross boundaries.”
Michael says he’s aware of the stigma that is often attached to escorting, but he doesn’t care what people think about him. He’s just doing what makes him happy.
“I don’t have any hang-ups about the ethics of being an escort,” he says, adding that he could see himself working well into his ’80s. “It’s the best job I can imagine.”
