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A former kids' TV star has opened up about his surprising journey from beloved Disney “geek” to top X-rated OnlyFans creator. Dan Benson, 35, soared to after-school popularity thanks to ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ where he played the loveable character Zeke Beckerman from 2007 to 2012. However, over the years, Benson’s career took an unexpected turn, from children’s TV comedy to the world of online porn. In an interview with PageSix, he explained how he made the surprising leap into the adult industry after nude photos of him were leaked online. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He revealed that he had been chatting to someone over the internet for a “period of a year or more” and ended up sending them explicit images of himself. “It was months and months later that I found out that those nude photos had leaked online, and that there [are] now websites that are selling those pictures and videos,” he said. He insisted that he’d tried hard to get the photos removed – particularly given that he was an actor on a popular kids' show at the time so was “fully aware of the ramifications” – but eventually accepted that there was “no fighting this”. As a result of the leaked footage, he built up a wide social media following from what he described as a “very specific audience”, who would write “lewd comments” on his Instagram posts. “When the OnlyFans thing exploded, in the back of my mind I kind of knew that the audience for that content [...] was already there for me,” he went on. The 35-year-old stressed that he didn’t just “randomly” decide one day that he wanted to do porn, he just realised that he had “built [a] massive audience for it”, which he then decided to embrace. Benson said that he thought that the OnlyFans “experience” is “different” and more “profound” to other forms of adult entertainment because creators are able to form “intimate connections” with their viewers. “A lot of the people that subscribe to my page grew up watching me and then have this intimate connection with me,” he explained. He went on: “I get messages all the time from people that say, ‘Hey, you were actually my gay awakening. “First of all, that’s super flattering for me, that’s incredibly endearing and awesome. And [it] is funny to me because Zeke was, like, the dorky, goofy character on ‘Wizards of Waverly Place.’ So I’m like, it’s shocking to me, but I think that’s cool.” @danleebenson Let’s watch my favorite Zeke moment ever in Wizards of Waverly Place! #disney #disneychannel #wizardsofwaverlyplace #disneychannelthrowbacks #zeke Despite acknowledging that “99 per cent” of his OnlyFans subscribers are gay men, Benson emphasised that he’s tried to be “completely open and honest” about the fact that he’s straight. “I'm not going to have sex with men on camera because everyone wants to see it,” he clarified. “I don't want to look back in 10 years and go, ‘OK I made all this money, I got all this fame because of this, but goddammit, I was doing all these things that made me feel uncomfortable just for that.” Benson has been vocal in his support for the LGBTQ+ community and, last month, he announced that he wanted to use his OnlyFans presence to champion its causes. Alongside a smouldering photo of himself, he tweeted: Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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President Joe Biden is kicking off his first full day of his trip abroad this week with a visit to the UK where he will meet with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III. The president landed in London on Sunday night ahead of Monday’s meeting with Mr Sunak, where the two leaders will discuss a range of topics including the war in Ukraine and will seek to bolster the US-UK “special relationship”. After that, he is heading to Windsor to meet the King – after infamously snubbing his coronation back in May. From there, the president will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania, for a meeting of NATO leaders. While Ukraine – and the US’s recent controversial decision to send cluster munitions to help in the war efforts – is expected to dominate conversations among the leaders, all eyes will also be on the president’s actions. Mr Biden has a well-documented history of embarrassing gaffes – something he admits, having once referred to himself as a “gaffe machine”. The president, 80, has a speech impediment which is often blamed for his verbal gaffes on the world stage. However, his string of verbal – and physical – slip-ups have been seized upon by his political rivals, in particular Donald Trump, who have sought to claim that they are a sign of a lack of mental competence. Whatever the reason, it’s undeniable that Mr Biden has become notorious for his blunders from muddling up leaders and wars to a series of trips and falls. As all eyes turn to his actions during his visit to the UK, here are some of his most notable gaffes to date: Muddling up the wars in Ukraine and Iraq In another infamous slip-up in June 2023, the president muddled up the ongoing war in Ukraine for the Iraq War, which ended in 2011. Mr Biden was speaking to reports on the south lawn of the White House before heading to Chicago when he was asked whether he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin had been weakened by the Wagner Group’s mutiny. Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had briefly led a rebellion marching towards Moscow. Mr Biden responded by saying that Mr Putin was “clearly losing the war in Iraq”. “It’s hard to tell, but [Putin’s] clearly losing the war in Iraq, losing the war at home. And he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” he said. ‘God save the Queen’ That same month, Mr Biden made another verbal gaffe when he bizarrely closed out a speech on gun control with the proclamation: “God save the Queen, man.” The president was speaking to a group of gun control advocates at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut at the time. The slip-up raised eyebrows as to who he was referring to. Was it Queen Elizabeth II who died in September 2022? Or was it Queen Camilla who was crowned just one month earlier when King Charles III took the throne in a coronation that Mr Biden famously snubbed? The White House later sought to explain away the bizarre reference by saying that he was merely “commenting to someone in the crowd”. ‘Mr President?’ The last time Mr Biden and Mr Sunak met, the US president accidentally called him by his own moniker: “Mr President.” The UK PM travelled to Washington DC for a two-day trip in early June where the two leaders held a meeting in the Oval Office White House. As they smiled for photos, Mr Biden said: “Well, Mr President...” Quickly correcting himself, he added: “I just demoted you, Mr Prime Minister.” The two laughed off the slip-up and continued with their meeting. Biden tumbles on stage at Air Force Graduation Mr Biden took a rather large tumble while on stage at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in early June. The president delivered the commencement address at the event and stayed on stage as graduates were handed their diplomas. As he walked off, he then stumbled and fell to the ground. He was helped up by Air Force officials and appeared to point at a sandbag as the culprit responsible for the mishap. White House communications director Ben LaBolt later tweeted that he was “fine” and that “there was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands”. This is far from the only time Mr Biden has taken a tumble. Napping at COP26 In a video that went viral on social media, Mr Biden was caught sleeping on the job at the COP26 climate change conference in Scotland in November 2021. In the clip, the president was seen appearing to nap during the opening remarks at the climate event – with his eyes shut at one point for more than 20 seconds. An aide was seen popping over and nudging him from his apparent slumber. Read More Biden news – live: US president to meet King Charles and Rishi Sunak ahead of Nato summit What are cluster bombs and what is controversial about Biden sending them to Ukraine? Biden touches down in UK as president expected to be challenged over cluster bombs at Nato summit Budget 2022: Hunt says UK in recession as he announces huge tax rises Jeremy Hunt increases energy windfall tax in budget Jeremy Hunt freezes tax allowances and hits 45p rate payers