A woman has opened up about her experiences of being a "sugar baby", revealing how older men have previously taken her on fully paid-for trips to Paris, on top of paying her £200 per date.
Charlotte Davies, 24, is regularly handed cash to go out on dates with wealthy businessmen and bankers, and claims she is "given money literally to just exist".
The social media marketing executive describes her clients as "really nice people" and says she enjoys having all the "benefits of a traditional relationship without the commitment".
She claims she feels more respected by her 10 sugar daddies than she ever did by the men she casually dated through apps, and says the arrangement is "mutually beneficial".
After her eight-year relationship ended, Charlotte, from Ealing, West London, began casually dating in the summer of 2022, but was soon inspired by a TV show about women pursuing the 'sugar baby' side hustle.
In January 2023, Charlotte signed an app that links women with sugar daddies prepared to shell out hundreds of pounds for dinner dates, holidays, and sex.
Charlotte explained: "The only dating I was doing was very casual, so I just thought that this was like what I'm doing anyway - except I wasn't getting paid for it.
"I feel like the kind of vibe you have with a lot of these people is that it's almost like a friends-with-benefits type situation. It's a very mutually beneficial agreement.
"They're all really nice people, and they're normally quite a bit older than me. A lot of them are in their late 30s, up to their 40s. I dated one guy once who was 63.
"Sometimes they'll take me shopping and pay for everything, or take me to spas, and I actually went to Paris a few weeks ago. Travelling is something that I love anyway that I can't afford to do a lot of the time, so it was really lovely to have everything paid for - plus getting paid to travel, which is amazing."
She added: "A lot of them are a bit socially awkward and shy, so it can be a bit of a challenge to get people to open up, but it's something that I enjoy trying to do.
"At the same time as well, it makes me feel really good and confident seeing these people. The guys I meet up with are all so complimentary, and I think maybe it comes from the fact that a lot of them have quite upsetting home lives or are quite lonely.
"It feels like it means a lot to them when you see them. It feels like you're adding a lot of value to their life, which is really nice. You almost wouldn't expect it because of the nature of the arrangement, but I do feel more respected by these men than by the men I've had the misfortune to date in the past.
"I don't know if it's just me having been unlucky with the guys I've chosen in the past, but there's something about guys who are slightly older who seem to have seen more of life and have realised what's important.
"It feels like it's almost a lot of the benefits of a traditional, serious relationship, but without the commitment, which is what I don't want at the moment."
Charlotte is now saving her sugar baby money to fund future travelling adventures and hopes to one day have enough to buy her own house.
At the moment, she has no plans to ditch her sugar daddies but says she would stop if she entered into another serious relationship.
She continued: "I'm always assessing and reassessing whether this is the right thing for me, and if it ever stops being the right thing for me, I would end my arrangements.
"I'm saving for more travel trips in the future and saving to buy a house one day, and it's massively helping me. I would definitely say that it's something I really enjoy. I can't see it stopping anytime soon.
"The only thing that would make me stop would be if I met someone who I wanted to be in a serious monogamous relationship with.
If so, I'd end my arrangements with my sugar daddies.
"Until that happens, it's something that really suits my way of life right now. It suits everything that I want out of life, and I get that little financial boost where I can save and fund things that I want to do."
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