'Your pimp is your only friend'

CLEO: FROM SIDE-HUSTLE TO FULL-TIME, MAKING ENDS MEET

- Hein Kaiser

Sex work has been a bittersweet pill for Cleo. She got into it by happenstance and was sucked into near-exploitation before, she said, taking control of her own destiny.

And while she's making a living, quiet periods still see her struggling to put food on the table. She's a divorced mom of two children, of whom the dad has custody.

"I came from a corporate background and had a friend who was a working girl. She used to contact me for doubles in the evenings and the extra income really helped," she said.

A double is a same-sex performance coupled with a threesome, paid for by the client. It was just a side hustle, but the fine print of the business, as she called it, quickly surfaced.

"The pimp managing my friend got me to give up my day job, not my choice but for their benefit. If you didn't agree to their demands and control, you'd lose clients to someone else."

Cleo called it a pyramid scheme, with agencies and brothel owners at the top of the food chain. "I was left to only do this work, making minimum income."