Former sex worker who slept with 'a million clients' thinks prostitution should be banned

She does not think the money is worth the risks

A former sex worker who claims to have slept with “one million men” for £140-an-hour now thinks prostitution should be banned - because it's lonely, dangerous and damaged her health.

Kat Lee from Manchester began working legally as an escort alongside her twin sister when she was a teenager - after a photographer lured them into the industry. She described herself as an 'outcall' escort, meaning she visits clients, rather than inviting them to her home or hotel room.

But after a 15-year career, Lee, 32, has decided to leave the industry to become a bartender and charity volunteer, and has issued a warning about how the stigma of her previous profession has damaged her work chances.

“I worked as an escort from when I was 18 until I was in my 30s, I must have seen over a million clients,” Lee said. “I was a teenager when I got into it. It started because of a photo shoot where me and my twin sister were asked to take off our tops and knickers for an adult magazine.

“Later, the photographer said we would be good in adult movies, being twins, and that led to escorting.”

While working as an escort, during which time she said she felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Lee received various gifts including an Audi convertible and trips to Milan and Paris.

Kat Lee says there are "better ways to live" than escorting

But although she always took precautions regarding her safety, but was once caught out by a man who spiked her drink.

She said: “I’ve only been in one dangerous situation on the job - when a client spiked my drink and took the money back after I was paid. I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe or anything. I had a driver to get me to jobs and I wouldn’t have got home without him.

“I never caught diseases from clients, but I feel a lot safer in my bar job with CCTV. I used to see four to five clients a day. You do get idiot clients who come in drunk.”

One of the most dangerous aspects of the job was Lee’s own drinking in an effort to gain confidence before meeting clients - which led to her being hospitalised to have her stomach pumped.

“If I turned down a client, the agency would fine me £50, so I started to find my own clients. It meant I would be waiting in hotel bars for my next job and I would drink to gain confidence before seeing a client,” she said. “That led to public disorder offences and ending up in the hospital to have my stomach pumped.”

Looking back on her long career in the sex work industry, Lee also recalled how lonely it was - because “women doing it would dislike me because men booked me more than them.”

And despite continuing to work on webcam to “stay in touch with regulars,” Lee does not believe she will return to escorting.

“It was something that I got into and didn’t mean to. I carried on working and then it became a habit,” she said. “You can’t really get a different job because you’re on Google and you already have the attention.”

Because of the stigma associated with the work, as well as the dangerous situations escorts can find themselves in, Lee thinks a ban would be a “good thing.”

“Some people turn to prostitution for drugs or a place to live. There’s no jobs or houses so they turn to prostitution to find money to leave home."

She said it's weird earning £7-an-hour in the bar when she used to make £140 as an escort. "You think ‘Oh my God, I could have worked one hour for £140 instead of many hours work at £7,” she said.

But she's not tempted to return, saying: "There are better ways to live."