Twin sisters in their early 80s have reignited debate online after publicly reflecting on their long careers in sex work, claiming that across several decades they collectively saw hundreds of thousands of clients.
The women, who have spoken openly in past interviews about their work, say their story is often reduced to shock value, when in reality it spans changing laws, shifting social attitudes, and the realities of survival in postwar Europe.
According to their account, the sisters entered sex work in the late 1950s, a period when options for working-class women were limited and heavily policed, especially in countries where prostitution existed in a legal gray area, as detailed in historical reporting on regulated sex work.
They say the figure that draws the most attention — hundreds of thousands of clients combined — reflects not exaggeration but the sheer passage of time, with decades of daily work in licensed establishments where high turnover was common.
Experts note that such numbers, while startling, are not impossible in regulated environments where sex workers may see multiple clients per day, a reality discussed in long-form examinations of the industry.
The twins have emphasized that their work was not glamorous, describing it instead as physically demanding and emotionally complex, shaped by the need for financial independence in an era when women often lacked access to stable employment or credit.
They have also spoken about the stigma that followed them long after they left the industry, noting that public curiosity often borders on voyeurism rather than genuine interest in their lived experience.
Advocates for sex workers argue that stories like theirs reveal how easily public discourse strips agency from older women, particularly when sexuality and aging collide, a topic explored in research on aging and sexuality.
The sisters say they were able to retire comfortably, crediting strict financial discipline rather than luck. They claim to have saved aggressively during their working years, a strategy they say protected them from poverty later in life.
Not everyone accepts their account at face value. Some critics online have questioned the math behind their estimates, while others accuse media outlets of amplifying the story primarily for shock.
Still, sociologists point out that numerical disbelief often reflects discomfort rather than factual impossibility, especially when discussing labor that remains marginalized, as noted in academic analysis of sex work narratives.
For the twins, the attention is secondary to what they say is the larger issue: how society remembers women whose labor existed outside traditional respectability, yet helped sustain entire industries.
They say they are no longer interested in defending their choices, only in being honest about them — even if that honesty unsettles people.
“People focus on the number,” one of the sisters said in a previous interview. “But they forget the years.”
Whether viewed as controversial or candid, their story continues to force uncomfortable questions about autonomy, aging, and how history treats women whose lives don’t fit neat narratives.