Maitland Ward is making serious bread during the pandemic.
The adult film star and former “Boy Meets World” actress says she has made six figures each month off OnlyFans — the subscription platform that has elevated the X-rated careers of everyone from housewives to teachers.
Ward, 44, told TMZ that her career has been especially lucrative with more people home during the pandemic. It’s given her the opportunity to connect with her “amazing fans,” and supplement her already flourishing career, she said.
“I get six figures a month from OnlyFans, and continuously,” said Ward, who played Rachel McGuire on the ABC sitcom 20 years ago.
It’s allowed her to do “more acting than I’ve ever done,” and make “more money and feel more powerful than I ever have in my life.”
Last week, she told The Post about her plans to return to TV with a sitcom about an adult superstar. She said she’ll be starring in and producing the new comedy series called “The Big Time,” marking her unprecedented shift from mainstream to porn and back again.
“I want to slay both industries,” Ward told The Post. “I love and embrace both. Me being bold and free in my sexuality and so out there with it has really given me that power. When I was like this innocent flower, I was letting everyone else dictate what I should do or what I should be.”
Beyond playing Rachel McGuire on the beloved ABC show, which wrapped in 2000, she’s done several pilots and an indie movie or two, but her last role on TV was in 2007 on “Rules of Engagement” as a sexy siren alongside David Spade.
“It was a long time ago, I had left the television world behind,” she said, citing the reason as being constantly labeled as the girl “from that kids show.”
Her new passion project, which is in development with Leaving Normal Productions, will begin shooting in May in New York.
“The writers came to me with the idea,” Ward said. “When I read their concept and everything in their original script, it was so sex-positive and fun. My character was based on me really because … it’s just my kind of persona.”
The show follows Ward’s character who, after a successful career in X-rated films, has been tapped to “save a waning film studio on the brink of collapse.” In an “Odd Couple”-like pairing, she teams with a “nerdy aspiring writer and mama’s boy” who will provide a new perspective on her “steamy” scenes and help fluff the struggling studio’s image.
“It’s going to have nudity, but it is going to be light-hearted,” Ward said. “It’s not going to be like, bubblegum.”
Ward believes there has been a shift in what people desire to watch on the screen beyond formulaic sitcoms, thanks to streaming platforms like Netflix, which struck gold with “Bridgerton” — a successful show that embraces and showcases nudity as well as diversity.
“I think people want to see all different stories and they don’t want to be boxed into the old and beholden to the studio system,” she said.
In the 18 months since Ward transitioned to adult acting, she has won five Adult Video News (AVN) awards — which are akin to the Oscars for porn — and six XBIZ Awards.
She may even have a “Boy Meets World” parody “situation” in store for her true fans.
“I’m writing a few things,” she said, declining to share the dirty details. “But it definitely is going to have the audience very excited.”
