OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky dies of cancer at 43

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky, a reclusive billionaire who transformed a little-known adult-content site into a cultural touchstone, has died of cancer, the company said Monday. Radvinsky was 43. 

"We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky. Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer," OnlyFans said in a statement to CBS News. "His family have requested privacy at this difficult time."

Radvinsky was worth $4.7 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.

Radvinsky, who was born in Ukraine, grew up in Chicago. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Northwestern University, where he started a porn website referral business while a student, according to Forbes. He later started a business called MyFreeCams that sold subscriptions to content creators' videos and photos, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In 2018, Radvinsky bought OnlyFans from Guy and Tim Stokely, a father and son team who had founded the business two years earlier. OnlyFans sells subscriptions to individual creators' content, often racy videos and photos that are barred on platforms like Instagram. 

Under Radvinsky's ownership, OnlyFans grew from about 350,000 content creators in 2019 to 4.6 million in 2024, according to regulatory filings. The company's revenue soared to $1.4 billion in 2024, up from about $59 million in 2019. 

The growing popularity of OnlyFans also bolstered Radvinsky's fortunes, with the company paying him about $1.8 billion in dividends since 2021, Bloomberg News reported.