TAMPA, FL — A 26-year-old online content creator says her relationship with her father ended not with an argument, but with a bank statement.
Marissa Cole, a Florida-based OnlyFans model with more than a hundred thousand subscribers, claims her father disowned her last year after learning how she earned her income—despite her offer to quietly pay off more than $80,000 in medical and credit card debt he had accumulated following a series of surgeries.
“I didn’t want credit or gratitude,” Cole said in an interview. “I just didn’t want him stressing about bills. I thought helping him would matter more than how I make my money.”
According to Cole, the revelation came when her father discovered her profession through a distant relative who recognized her online. What followed, she says, was a brief phone call and a single sentence she still remembers word for word:
“I’d rather struggle than be helped by that.”
Cole says she transferred the money anyway, but it was returned days later with a handwritten note stating that accepting it would be “a betrayal of values.”
Friends close to the family describe her father as deeply religious and proud, the kind of man who never accepted help—even when he needed it. Still, some relatives privately questioned whether pride outweighed parental love.
“It hurts because I’m still his daughter,” Cole said. “The work pays my rent, my taxes, and apparently could’ve paid his debt. But it doesn’t pay for forgiveness.”
Since speaking publicly, Cole says she has received thousands of messages from followers sharing similar stories—parents cutting ties over career choices, lifestyle differences, or money that came from places they didn’t approve of.
“Everyone keeps asking if I’ll apologize,” she added. “For what? Existing differently than he wanted?”
As of now, Cole says she hasn’t spoken to her father in over a year. She keeps the returned check in a drawer—not as proof of rejection, but as a reminder.
“I tried to help,” she said quietly. “That has to count for something.”
