Gay escort Sleazy Michael is 59 and having the time of his life.
The gay escort, who features on Channel 5’s The Sex Business on Tuesday night, has been working in the trade for 13 years, ever since he came out to his wife and two children.
He had to leave his “very nice middle-class lifestyle” in Cambridge after being thrown out by his wife who, he says, chased him around the kitchen with a knife.
That was after he was forced to come out to his teenage children when they saw pictures of him having gay sex on the family computer.
But he told PinkNews that soon after these difficult moments, he realised his true calling.
“When three or four guys tell you you should be paid for sex, a light bulb goes off,” he said.
“The way it happened was all organic. 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.”
He explained that having to hide his true self until he was well into his 40s influenced his decision to be an escort.
“For 23 years I was like a time bomb about to go off,” said Michael. “I had to repress that desire to have sex with guys.
“If I hadn’t been in the closet all those years, maybe I would never have become an escort.”
But now, the former railway worker – who quipped that it was a “slight career shift” – charges £100 an hour and feels fulfilled.
“It’s awesome, being my own boss. I do things and I see their eyes light up.”
Michael said that he gets a variety of clients – usually one or two a week – and that “99 percent are fantastic and respectful – we’re both giving something to each other.”
Of his clients, he said 80 percent are married, and some have a male partner but want to experiment with sex acts which their other half doesn’t want to do.
“I’m helping them to fulfil a fantasy,” Michael said.
“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?”
With some clients, the service he provides is life-changing, he said.
“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.
“I had a guy in his fifties who was raped when he was 14. We talked about it and five minutes later I had my cock up his arse,” he added.
“Another client would pay £1,000 for four hours and mostly just work on me.”
Another time, he recalls being paid for a 22-hour session.
Michael is well aware that some people see being an escort in a negative light, and says such opinions are “like a red flag to a bull” to him.
“It’s a pile of s**t,” he added. “I don’t have any hang-ups about the ethics of being an escort.”
Though he admitted that he’s “never really had a relationship with another guy,” the Londoner said that he enjoyed his own company.
And he said he’ll keep having sex for money for as long as he enjoys it, pointing to other gay escorts he knew who were working well into their eighties.
“It’s the best job I can imagine,” he said, happily.
The Sex Business airs on Tuesday night at 10pm on Channel 5.
