Hot Cake: John Whaite

Words Ryan Cahill | Photography Kuba Ryniewicz | Styling Douglas Miller | Set Design Brad Barrett | Grooming and Skin Travis Nunes | Art Direction Jack Rowe | Photography Assistant Sam Harrison | Set Design Assistants Deneille Percival and James Baldwin | With thanks to David Mellor and Studio Casso

I first became familiar with John Whaite when he appeared as the first male same-sex couple on Strictly Come Dancing alongside Johannes Radebe. Before then, he’d won The Great British Bake Off, released 5 acclaimed cookbooks and had a string of food-related presenting jobs, making him a household name. He was perfectly packaged as the boy next door – a common technique in the media to make male TV personalities seem easily digestible: approachable, relatable, trustworthy. While Whaite is all those things, he’s anything but ordinary – a much bigger, multifaceted personality than perhaps he was given the opportunity to show on TV. Over the months that we met for this project, he proved himself to be funny, cheeky, and comfortably in-control of his sex appeal. 

Earlier this year, Whaite decided to shed his boy next door image and take control of his own narrative. Turning his back on television, he’s launched two new businesses – his bakery Ruff Puff Bakehouse, a walk-in addition to his national brownie postal service, and an OnlyFans account, diving into the world of home-baked pornography. The latter has been somewhat drenched in controversy, and I’ve been fascinated to see the whole saga unfold over the past six months. He claims to have been dropped by both Peugeot and Waitrose and has challenged the views of puritanical prime-time viewers across the nation. For the most part, he’s been tight-lipped on turning his back on TV – that is until now. 

After exchanging a few messages over Instagram in which I expressed my interest in telling his story, Whaite and I first meet in person on the set of his cover shoot. For much of the shoot, he’s entirely naked, clad in nothing but the Louis Vuitton fragrance (Nouveau Monde) he spritzed on that morning. Despite being so exposed, he’s effortlessly calm and confident: he engages in idle chatter with the crew, and makes playful banter with the photographer. I’m instantly taken by his nonchalance, his poise and how comfortable he seems in his own skin. It’s clear to me then, that John Whaite has truly reached his final form. 

We meet at last! Thanks for doing this! 

It’s a pleasure – thank you for giving me the opportunity to have my say. I’ve been approached by many different publications, but I wanted to save this for a queer outlet. I just feel it’s time for me to say something. When the news about my OnlyFans account came out, my agent at the time wanted me to speak to a crisis manager to ‘repair the damage’, but I’m totally unashamed of this stage of my career. In fact, I’d go as far as to say I’m proud of where I’m at, and I’m not going to lurk in the shadows and have some spin doctor twist the narrative. In the words of Harvey Fierstein: "I am what I am, and what I am, needs no excuses." 

You first made an OnlyFans in 2022, but it wasn’t until 2025 that you properly launched your channel. Tell me about that. 

When I did it the first time, I was still working on daytime TV and what I didn't know at the time was that the channel I was working for was monitoring it. No one ever said anything to me and I felt a little bit pissed off at the duplicity. If someone thought it was an issue, just say something! I think the reason I've got into it now that I've quit TV is twofold. It’s a middle finger to the industry saying “don't you dare try to censor me!”, but primarily it’s for a sense of liberation. Growing up gay in the 90s, we were often told that if you have sex, you're going to get AIDS and you’ll die or you're going to get gay bashed. Or you’re going to live a lonely life. So I think for me, it's a sense of complete freedom in my sexuality. For so long, I hated my body. I've had bulimia and body dysmorphia, and I've got to the stage where I'm happy that my body is shape shifting. It grows, it shrinks, it can do beautiful things, and I just don't care anymore – not in a nihilistic way where I've given up on life, actually the opposite! I'm so happy that my life has gone in the direction it's gone in, and I want to celebrate everything – right down to my nether regions!  

Tell me some more about the monitoring that you experienced when you had OnlyFans the first time around. 

I remember one day on the studio floor in front of all the cameras, a researcher I was working with really closely, said to me “Oh, have you? Have you done it? Is it true? You've done a full frontal on OnlyFans”, and I felt like I was being set up. I was being asked this in front of the six cameras in a rehearsal. I was really, really pissed off. My agent confirmed that someone at the production company was watching. I realised that that was the tipping point for me. They valued me enough to let me say things on screen that would get them headlines, but they didn't value me enough to say “Look, we're worried for you. We think you should not be doing this right now.” They should respect you and look after you. I think the deeper conversation here is about welfare generally within the TV industry. I think that is still very much an elusive beast.

I feel like in recent years we’ve slowly started to hear more about the need for better aftercare in television. 

I think whenever a television show uses people's vulnerabilities for financial gain, they should be obliged to have a welfare commissioner who endures long after the event, until that person has got through the headlines, has got through the psychological effects. With [The Great British] Bake Off and Strictly [Come Dancing], they should all have that. As soon as Strictly finishes, it's like, get out the hotel, get out the flat, go home, but that is a life- altering event for the individual who's been subject to the headlines, often at the hand of these shows, because these shows sometimes feed stories to the media.  

Do you think that aided your decision to leave TV? 

TV is manipulative and it's a distortion of truth, there's always an ulterior motive. People aren't being fed the unadulterated, objective truth. And I certainly don't subscribe to that. I came to TV very young. I was around 23 on Bake Off and for so long I thought that my existence hinged on being successful in television. But I think when you go through all these different permutations of your life, you start to realise that the bullshit just does not matter. What actually matters is your health, your sanity, your loved ones, your family, be it biological or chosen. 

"I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a natural born attention seeker"

TV can be quite fickle too. I imagine there’s a lot of insecurity in the work itself.  

As on-screen talent, we were paid handsomely. There were ebbs and flows, of course, but many of us earned enough to get through the quieter months. I think of those behind the scenes who earn 100 quid a day, and then all of a sudden, the show's canceled. They lose their job, they lose their livelihood, it's really a flawed industry. I think people think that I started OnlyFans for financial reasons but that isn’t true. I'd already set up my online bakery business. I'd had money in the bank from Strictly and all the corporate deals and so it wasn't about money for me. It was about just being true to who I am. I had auditioned for a porn production company when I was at university, so I've always been very comfortable in my sexuality. I've always been intrigued and I've always been interested in a portrayal of love through connection, through intimacy.

You mention your content being rooted in intimacy and tenderness. What made you go in that direction? 

I think gay people often grow up thinking that they'll never have a connection on a deep, meaningful level, so what I really want to do is show people that they can have that and that it's absolutely healthy to be vanilla. I often joke that there's more to life than missionary, and that is of course true, but missionary is my favourite position. It's intimate, it's beautiful. I’m tired of the rough, aggressive outlets that are out there. It's important to show a softer side to sexuality. Don’t get me wrong: there’s a place for rough and ready, but that’s much more performative. For me there’s nothing sexier than when couples want to connect with each other, and not just use one another. 

A national newspaper reported that you were making 75,000 pounds a month from OnlyFans. Is that anywhere near true? 

In all honesty, it changes every month. The number of subscribers goes up and down. Some people renew their subscription and some people just log in for a month, pleasure themselves and then log out. Some people just think that OnlyFans is self- obsessed, that you upload a picture and you get loads of money. OnlyFans is a full-time job in itself. It's a marketing job. Primarily, it's about marketing. In this day and age, pretty much everything is about social media. 

If not money, what spurred you on to join the site when you did?

It just felt like the right time. I was so stressed with my bakery business doing 12-hour days producing brownies, cutting brownies, shipping brownies, that I needed some sort of creative outlet. It sounds ridiculous to say creative, but it really is a creative outlet. Also, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a natural born attention seeker. I'm a performer. I like to perform. I like to have an audience, to feel validated for what I choose to give to an audience. For a long time I struggled with that. I used to be ashamed of being a show off, but I am a fucking show off! It doesn't mean I’m a bad person. Ultimately, I’m still in bed at half eight every night with a decaf tea, my husband and my dog. I’m still scrubbing my bakery floor after a long-arsed day. That is my life and I bloody love it. 

You’ve spoken openly about the response from both Peugeot and Waitrose. Tell me more about that and the response from people generally. 

I expected it from the commercial partners. I knew that would happen, but I didn’t think it would be quite so cruel. With Waitrose, we worked together for 13 years and to delete my entire back catalogue and to not be told in advance, I just think it’s cowardly. With the public, the majority of people that message me are saying ‘Good for you’. It’s not just empowering to gay men, but also to some women as well, especially Northern, working class women who felt they had to fill a certain paradigm or template that had been set in stone based on tradition.  I like to feel that they too are fulfilled to say “I want to be a bit more sexy. I want to be a bit more liberated. I want to have a bit more freedom in my life”. I feel it is reflected in the messages that I get from those people. 

As a society, I feel we try to present as more sex positive, but do you think that is actually true? 

It’s the younger generation who shout loudly about it. Again, people say "Is it terrible that you can’t work for Waitrose?” No, it’s not. It’s not terrible that I can’t work for Waitrose anymore. You’re not going to get Holly Willoughby flashing her mary on OnlyFans and staying in a job on national television. I’m not shocked that I wouldn’t get invited to do mainstream TV anymore. I don’t see why people should be so shocked by it. I’ve chosen to do something that is adult and explicit and it doesn’t go with the boy next door image that you have to portray on TV. But we can still demand to be treated with human respect and dignity. 

I’m intrigued by body image and how that plays into sites like OnlyFans. You’ve been open about your struggles around body image in the past. Does being on the platform serve as a form of validation?

I’m separate from that now. I went through that after Bake Off. I’ve had 13 years of feeling validated and experiencing the highs and lows from tweets and Instagram. I sincerely now see it as a business endeavour. I feel like it’s helped my body image because it’s made me detach. Even though I’m baring all on OnlyFans, I know that people have different kinks and likes. I always wanted to be a muscle mary with ripped abs, and I still do, but what I find very humanising and grounding is the fact that people don’t care if I’ve got a beer belly or a dad bod on OnlyFans. They genuinely don’t. I don’t define myself by my body. That’s a constant reminder. It’s an ongoing struggle and it will last for the rest of my life. I have to be cognitive about it and I have to remind myself that isn’t who I am. I am not this sack of skin and the bones within it. 

"The thing that I’m most proud of in my life, without a shadow of a doubt, is the fact that my husband and I have been through 18 years of togetherness."

I can imagine the last six months have been a lot for you, and those around you. How are you feeling about it all now? 

Most of my family couldn’t be more supportive. They laugh as I tell them the funny stories from the whole experience – and believe me, I could already write a whole book about what OnlyFans is like behind the scenes. There have been a couple of hurtful comments from people in my immediate family – one person called me ‘disgusting’ which knocked the wind out of my sails for a moment. But I’ve since decided to pay that person no more mind. If they want to reduce everything I that am – all that I have achieved, the love I share with my family – to a single buzzword, then that’s on them. I’m done with trying to fit into neat and tidy boxes just to gain their approval. 

You’ve already achieved so much, and you’ve just opened Ruff Puff Bakehouse. What’s next on the agenda? 

I could die happy, I think. Genuinely,  I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do in terms of career. I think what going through Bake Off and Strictly has taught me is that happiness isn’t contingent on success or on financial success, because I’ve had money in the bank and I’ve been deeply unhappy. The thing that I’m most proud of in my life, without a shadow of a doubt, is the fact that my husband and I have been through 18 years of togetherness. When we got married we had all the mentions of ‘I give myself to you’ taken out of the script. There was no ownership involved in our wedding vows. We’re growing as individuals but side by side like two strong oak trees. I think that is the thing I’m most proud of, that I get to experience a relationship that is founded on mutuality and sincere respect for one another. He’s my favourite human being. And all that I want from my life is to have more time with him, travelling the world, laughing at silly things in the kitchen, getting to know each other even more. He’s the reason I work so hard. He’s the reason I feel unashamed in walking the earth as the person I am.