Exclusive Interview
Inside ‘Double Lives of Suburban Wives’ Star Tammy’s Relationship & Controversial Career
What To Know
- Tammy, known online as adult content creator Erika Swingz, stars in TLC’s new series Double Lives of Suburban Wives.
- She revealed to Swooon that she met her husband, Drew, in college.
- Drew suggested that Tammy start making adult content to pay the bills.
“I’m just a person, too,” Tammy, known online as Erika Swingz, told Swooon. “I’m just another human out here, just doing my thing and doing my best with what I have, just trying to create a good life for my family with my husband.”
On July 14, TLC announced its newest series, Double Lives of Suburban Wives, would follow six couples in the St. Louis area as they navigate “the complexities of marriage, parenthood and suburban life” while maintaining prolific careers in adult content creation. One half of “the couple that started it all,” Tammy sat down with Swooon ahead of the August 9 premiere to introduce herself and her husband to viewers ahead of the season and reveal why she started making explicit content.
Tammy’s relationship with her husband, Drew, began in a college dorm. They first crossed paths when she was 22, and Drew was her 24-year-old RA. “I was not looking for anything serious, but lo and behold, we ended up spending time together, and I got to know him,” she told Swooon. “I was very shy, introverted, not confident at all, and he was everything complementary to me. He was outgoing. People liked him. He was good at sports.” Soon, they were attached at the hip.
According to Tammy, it was actually Drew’s idea for Tammy to start making adult content. Before she appeared on-camera, she was a registered veterinary technician. Tammy explained to Swooon, “I got into the adult content creation space about 13 years ago. It was not what I was looking for at the time. My husband was the one who brought it up, and at first, I was very hesitant. I was in that mental space that a lot of people are in. Like, hold on a second, what for money? There were a lot of questions that I had, so we dove into that together, obviously, with very open communication. It takes a very certain recipe to make that work.”
TLC
At first, Tammy created explicit content to pay bills in college. “We were struggling, and were like, ‘Hey, a couple $100 here and there really does go a long way,'” Tammy revealed. “So we started there, and it was very evident to us that this very much overlapped with some other just elements of our life. We’re very open, and we enjoy being open with our lives. So we decided to kind of buckle down, and then things popped off later, and I realized very quickly that I was a lot more popular than I thought I was going to be. We decided to hit it full time.”
Online, Tammy is known as Erika Swingz, a name that Drew helped her pick. “You guys will find out, Swingz has a double meaning with my personal life,” Tammy hinted. “And Erika, honestly, my husband could answer this question better, but I think he said one time, ‘I’ve never met an ugly Erika.'”
As for how Tammy and Erika intersect, she explained, “Erika Swingz is pretty much the same as my day-to-day persona as Tammy, except obviously for the fact that I have a family life, and there are certain elements that I want to keep a little bit more private. But I try to intersect them as much as I can, because for me, one of my core values is authenticity, and so it just takes the guesswork out of it. I’m not trying to create some fake person online; I think that’s why my fans love me and support me.”
Tune in to Double Lives of Suburban Wives on August 9, after 90 Day Fiancé, to find out more about Tammy and the rest of the cast.
Double Lives of Suburban Wives, Season 1, Sunday, August 9 at 10/9c, TLC
