When society imagines an escort, the picture is often of a solitary woman. While this holds true in many instances, the reality for one Canadian professional flips that script entirely. She is a wife who looks forward to her husband pouring her a glass of Sancerre after work while she tallies her earnings, navigating a successful marriage within the world's oldest profession.
From Finance to Escorting: A Calculated Career Shift
This woman, Mia Lee, is a certified public accountant and former banker who spent a decade on Wall Street before transferring her corporate skills. She speaks four languages—Chinese, English, Spanish, and Arabic—has visited over 60 countries, collects scotch, enjoys racing sports cars, and is a former competitive MMA fighter. She found that possessing the acumen of an investment banker and the appeal of a stereotypically attractive woman created a powerful formula for success in high-end escorting.
Her career change brought dramatic improvements to her work-life balance. Previously working 70 stressful hours a week in finance, she now works roughly 20 hours weekly for comparable income and significantly less pressure, describing her clients as wonderful.
A Liberal Partnership in the Tech World
Mia met her husband, a financial technology executive, online. She began escorting shortly after they started dating. Being fully open about her profession with everyone in their lives, she notes that the liberal tech industry has made her job a non-issue for his career. In fact, she says young software engineers find it "cool" he's married to a high-end escort.
Despite this acceptance in their immediate circle, the broader societal stigma persists. In most social settings, they downplay or redirect conversations about her work to avoid discomfort or an intrusive line of questioning. When Mia told her husband of her plan to leave finance for escorting, his pragmatic reaction was to offer help with her website, showcasing a relationship built on rationality rather than sexual jealousy.
Non-Monogamy as a Foundation, Not a Threat
A cornerstone of their marital success, Mia explains, is their non-monogamous arrangement. They have maintained an open relationship from the start, a concept that felt natural and was never up for debate. She has learned through her work that cheating is common, but divorce is not inevitable. She observes that sex workers often compensate for missing pieces in clients' marriages, providing experiences their spouses cannot or will not share, without seeking to break up families.
In her personal life, Mia has a girlfriend who is also a sex worker. Her husband pursues more casual dates, while Mia invests time in her other relationship. They have also booked sex workers together to avoid being a couple superficially "unicorn hunting" on dating apps. Their primary rule is to prioritize work first, then each other, then others, as both are deeply passionate about their careers.
Mia stresses that their commitment is no less than that of monogamous couples. She argues that because they see other people, they consciously choose each other daily. For them, commitment is forged through growing together, not through the exclusion of other partners. She acknowledges their marriage is untraditional but attributes its strength to their shared independent thinking and rationality, which guided them to their careers and to each other.
This piece was originally published in 2022 and was rerun as part of HuffPost Personal's "Best Of" series. Mia Lee is also the chief financial officer at Petit Mort Magazine and offers pro bono financial literacy work in the adult industry.
