Leonid Radvinsky, the billionaire owner of OnlyFans, died of cancer at 43, the company said Monday. In a statement to The Associated Press, a company spokesperson said Radvinsky, who was also known as “Leo,” “passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer,” and the family requested privacy.
OnlyFans operates a subscription model that lets creators charge directly for their content. The platform has attracted some celebrities, athletes and other public figures as a way to interact with fans, but it has also become widely known for content described by the company and media as pornographic.
Radvinsky acquired the company that owns and operates OnlyFans in 2018 and served as a director and majority shareholder, according to the company. The company said in its statement that he helped transform the pornography industry with the subscription-based approach after the acquisition.
The platform’s rise in the porn industry coincided with the pandemic, when many sex workers joined OnlyFans as an alternative to in-person venues and interactions. The company has previously reported generating billions of dollars annually in gross revenue and having hundreds of millions of users.
Earlier in his career, Reuters reported that Radvinsky created MyFreeCams, a website that it described as a pioneer in enabling people to pay for explicit content online. Born in Ukraine, Radvinsky grew up in Chicago and studied economics at Northwestern University, where he was a class valedictorian, according to the report.
The company also said Radvinsky was an angel investor in several other companies and supported philanthropic projects. It cited his personal website as listing donations that included Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the West Suburban Humane Society, and the University of Chicago Medicine.
The AP report noted that little is known about Radvinsky’s personal life and that he seldom spoke publicly. The company spokesperson’s statement emphasized that his family has asked for privacy in the wake of his death.