One of the biggest TV comebacks on the 2026 premiere schedule has been HBO's Euphoria, which returned for Season 3 after a four-year hiatus. Unsurprisingly, the salacious drama quickly starting drawing the same kind of polarized reactions from fans and critics as the first two seasons did, and it's Sydney Sweeney's character at the center of some recent critical blowback; particularly Cassie Howard's OnlyFans modeling.
Sweeney's hyper-sexualized Cassie has been a hot-button character from the jump, and that distinction has only been growing in Season 3 over her gloriously gaudy wedding with Nate and her expanding-ish career on OnlyFans. Now, some models from the platform are slamming the show's depiction, saying some of the things that Cassie has been shown doing would never actually be allowed.
According to Sydney Leathers, who has been earning an OnlyFans income since 2017, Cassie's photo session where she's wearing a diaper and rocking a pacifier is one example that isn't permitted by the site's guidelines. As she put it to Variety:
There’s just a lot that’s ridiculous and cartoonish about it. There’s so much that they have her doing that is not even allowed on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she’s dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example. Credit card processors have very strict rules that you have to abide by, and the rules are getting stricter all the time.
For all that the uninitiated may believe that OnlyFans is a den of sexual perversions, the company has a pretty strict policy when it comes to forbidden acts. One of those banned actions is age-related role-playing, where models pretend to be younger than the legal age of consent. Other no-nos include real or role-played incest, bestiality, necrophelia, rape and/or terrorist acts. As such, the show has also taken heat for Cassie's photo shoot where she's dressed to look like a dog on a leash.
Such requirements are in place to ensure a working relationship between OnlyFans and the various credit card companies and other financial institutions that the platform works with. So when a show like Euphoria makes it seem like the subscription-based site does allow such questionable sexual themes, it's viewed as a net negative by those who are making a living there.
Boy Meets World alum Maitland Ward, who's clashed with former co-star Danielle Fishel in the past, has flourished financially after successfully transitioning to the adult film industry, and that includes a thriving spot on OnlyFans itself. She also had some less-than-positive comments, expressing her belief that Euphoria is treating those illicit photo sessions as jokes. As she put it:
In the climate we’re in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money. And there’s always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse. And they just said, let’s make a joke of it. That is so funny. I’m not laughing.
To that end, series creator Sam Levinson did recently address the OnlyFans-related criticisms by saying the point was to play up the absurdity of Cassie's libidinous acts being captured by her non-sexualized housekeeper. But Ward doesn't seem to even be taking that explanation with a grain of salt, and compared it to her experience of having "pranced around in lingerie" on Boy Meets World. The actress summed it up with:
To take someone so traditionally blonde and beautiful with the biggest boobs and dress her up as a dog and baby is really bizarre, but at the same time so expected in Hollywood.
Somehow I can't foresee Euphoria completely changing direction by having Cassie shed her sexually oriented photo sessions so that she can focus on tutoring lower-performing high school students, among other forms of public service. At this point, all we can do is hope that Levinson & Co. don't show her trying to bang a corpse. Welcome to 2026 television.
Euphoria airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET.
