The women seeking rich older men to pay their university fees?

It's been euphemistically referred to as "mutually beneficial, transactional dating" but is the growing world of "sugar daddy" relationships just a sanitised term for sex work?
Freya is 22 and wearing jogging bottoms and a tatty T-shirt. She expresses herself unaffectedly and confidently.

She decided to start sleeping with older men for money while she was at university. "I love sex," says Freya. "And you know, I'm pretty good at it. So getting a sugar daddy - or two - was a no-brainer really."

Freya is one of a growing number of debt-ridden university students in the UK who have decided to become "sugar babies". These young women agree to be wined and dined by rich, older men who are known as "sugar daddies", in return for cash and gifts.

"My married sugar daddy gave me about £1,000 a night," says Freya reflectively. "He was just in it for the sex. My divorced sugar daddy gave me between £1,000 and £2,000 as an allowance."

I mean, yes, it's prostitution really but I think there's such a ridiculous stigma attached to that word
Freya

Freya had worked hard to make ends meet at university. "I was working two jobs in my first year," she explains "It was awful - £5 an hour in bar work mainly and it was really affecting my studies. But this way, having my sugar daddies, I was able to concentrate 100% on my work and I got a First in the end. I mean, yes, it's prostitution really but I think there's such a ridiculous stigma attached to that word."

Despite acknowledging she was involved in sex work, Freya maintains she exercised a degree of control. "They were really attractive guys - I chose very carefully."

Freya's mother Mary agreed to be interviewed at the same time. She seems unfazed by her daughter's choice of career. "Actually I was quite proud of her," says Mary, shrugging. "I think it's a brave thing to do and I'm glad she wanted to discuss it with me. Of course my friends were all pretty aghast."

Money was tight for the family, Mary says. She was divorced and had other children to put through university too.

"As long as I felt that she was really happy and enjoying what she was doing, I couldn't see any problem with it and I thought it was a great solution," says Mary.

"All kids are born with talents. My daughter happens to have been born with beauty and sexual allure. It's like a commodity."

Sugar dating websites are not supposed to be a conduit for selling sex - that would put them in a tricky legal area. But only the naive could get the wrong end of the stick.

"Enrol at Sugar Baby University today and get your education paid for by a generous sponsor," trills a soft female voice in one website advertisement.

Angela Jacob Bermudo is the PR director for the very same website. "I would not say sex is expected, I would say sex is aspired to," she says.

"A sugar baby gets financial stability with a monthly allowance," insists Bermudo. "And mentorship and a bevy of networking opportunities. In the UK, it's students who are our largest sugar baby demographic."

"It's the young ladies that actually have the power!" laughs 28-year-old sugar baby Alana.

"I'm the one with the power."

Click to continue reading