Traveller who left husband to become OnlyFans model says she's been shunned

Irish Daily Mirror

3 days ago

An Irish Traveller who left her husband and became an OnlyFans model has told how she has been shunned by her own community.Margaret McDonagh, 24, from Dublin, said members of the Traveller community no longer speak to her since she started glamour modelling.
She said that nudity is frowned upon in the Traveller community, and that those who are known to show themselves naked to anyone other than their partner are 'shunned big time'. Margaret said: "If more than one male has seen a girl nude she is straight away frowned upon. Her reputation has gone out the window - she's a bad person, nobody will talk to her.
"Parents of other girls would say 'don't talk to her, don't be friends with her'. If you're seen with her, people are going to say you're doing the same. I think most people are just worried about themselves, and are worried that other people in the community would look at them in disgust, just because somebody they know or somebody they're related to is doing something.
"It would be like bringing shame on the family - you're straight away classed as a bad person."
Margaret lived in a caravan as a baby and left school to get married aged just 16, against her parents' wishes. However, the stay-at-home mum has faced stigma after deciding to leave her traveller husband aged 21. Now, she's become an OnlyFans model and is set to appear in Pg7 Magazine - a lads mag which features glamour models alongside motorbikes and cars.
Margaret said the decision to leave her husband, and to later become a glamour model, have led to her being ostracised from her community and has destroyed family relationships. The 24-year-old, who has been nominated for 'Best Model' at the Alternative Awards later this year, said she has been referred to as an 'escort' and shunned by other members of the Traveller community.
She said: "My immediate family - my mam, my dad, my brothers and my sister, all my dad's side of the family, they fully support me - I've a lot of support from them. But that's all - from everyone else, they look down on me and they wouldn't speak to me, or they think I've brought shame on the family.
"It's very exhausting, it's very upsetting, because before I started pursuing this career, I was very close with relatives. They're always there for you, but then as soon as I made the decision to become a glamour model, they just switched up so fast - now it's like I don't even exist."
Despite it all, Margaret - who goes by the stage name Esmeralda - said she is determined to make it in the industry and that she's 'never been happier' and isn't afraid to break stereotypes. She said: "I've always had a passion for modelling, especially glamour modelling.
"It's just something I've always wanted to do. Over the years I couldn't, because there was a lot holding me back - being a woman in the Irish traveller community, there's a lot of pressure on you. You have to be perfect, you have to be very careful what you do and very careful what you say to be accepted.
"I just walked away from all that and went on to do what I really wanted to do and wanted to be. Since pursuing that, I've lost a lot of connections. No offence to anyone in the community, but they marry, they have loads of kids, and they just obey their husbands. They obey them, they go by the rules - that's just not for me, I don't want that kind of life. I don't want someone having that kind of control over me.
"Growing up in the community as a girl, as a woman, there's a lot expected from you. You are to stay at home and mind the kids, you have to cook, you have to clean, you can't go anywhere by yourself. You have to have somebody with you. There's only certain things you can do, certain things you can say.
"For boys, like for men, it's completely different - they can do anything they want, but a girl has to be really careful what she does in the community. Being a girl in that community, there's a lot of pressure on you. A lot of girls out there might not want to do what's expected from them, but they're just scared of the scandal.
"Coming from that community, and then to pursue a career in the glamour industry, you have to have thick skin - because you will get a lot of hate."