Inside the controversial 'feeder fetish' house where plus-size women document dramatic weight gain for subscribers

Tucked away in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a sprawling six-bedroom mansion where a community of plus-size women live together freely and without judgement.

The house, aptly named Pearadise, has been fitted with sturdy beds and sun loungers that can accommodate bigger bodies.

Its owner, German businessman Stefan Wilhelmy, openly admits he is a lover of plus-size women, and he has advertised his home as a support space for people who have been condemned for their weight.

And to the outside world, Pearadise seems like a mecca for women who have been ostracized by society for their size. In TikTok videos, they parade in bikinis and frolic in the swimming pool, seemingly without a care in the world.

But while Pearadise is touted as a body-positive community and an empowering sisterhood, some say that what is being sold online is only half the story.

Since it rose to prominence within the world of BBW (big beautiful women), a seedier side has reared its ugly head, which includes allegations of misconduct and claims of manipulation, coercion, and exploitative dynamics. The community's founder adamantly denies such claims.

Photojournalist Emily Kask spent just over a month living in the home where she documented what she said really happens behind closed doors.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, she said that while the community bond is undeniable, young women need to really understand the world of adult content and feederism, a fat fetish subculture in which individuals eroticize weight gain and feeding, that exists there.

'I think there is this underbelly of what's happening in Pearadise,' Kask said. 'Adult filmmaking is not enforced there, but it is pervasive through the house.

'If you are just another young fat girl coming, and you are younger and naive, and solely think this is about body positivity, and that you're not going to be exposed to sex work there, it's probably not going to feel safe.'

Kask said that women who already have established an OnlyFans and are experienced with sex work will likely feel a lot safer at Pearadise.

'Many of the women who stay at the house or are frequenters of the house are sex workers,' she said.

'They advertise their content and they collaborate with each other at Pearadise or they help assist each other in filming in some way. That is part of the sisterhood that happens there.'

Wilhelmy opened the doors to Pearadise in 2020, and over the last six years it has become a hub for big women who are seeking a judgement-free zone.

Originally from Berlin, he left Germany for the United States after being shamed for liking plus-size women.

Wilhelmy made his fortune when he invented a piece of technology for high-end convertibles that allows drivers to put the top up and down while driving.

The invention, in his words, was his 'ticket to freedom' and allowed him to purchase Pearadise.

According to its official website, Pearadise came together naturally.

'The idea grew out of speaking openly about liking plus-size women, confronting the bullying that came with that, and seeing how many people needed a place where they could feel calm, safe, accepted, and free from shame,' it reads.

'Pearadise grew out of the desire to create a real safe space — not just in words, but in practice — where people could relax, be themselves, and not worry about nasty comments, uncomfortable furniture, or embarrassing situations because of their size.'

In a statement shared with the Daily Mail, Wilhelmy agreed with Kask's statement that many of the women that visit Pearadise are involved in OnlyFans and sex work.

He stresses, however, that he has never pressured them to do so.

'Women here educate each other on the topics, and some did get into that 'industry' of either erotic or 'fetish' content using platforms such as OnlyFans or Curvage,' he said.

'The clarification that needs to be made is that everyone has been well over 21 and everyone has been doing so out of their own desire, inspired by others they met.

'The narrative that I have been pushing, forcing or coercing people to do anything, including weighing themselves, is completely false.'

Wilhelmy told the Daily Mail that the women at Pearadise inspired each other with their confidence.

He also added that he has supported their interest in content creation where he can.

'Countless times we had situations where someone would come here and be very shy at first, connect quickly with everyone and open up, gain confidence and then get to a point where they felt beautiful and desirable, saw the other women be successful with their social media or more adult oriented content and then get interested in it,' he said.

'I would say that I have helped where I could: ringlights, battery packs, helping clean up a room, teaching people how to use equipment or how to upload files, yes absolutely.'

Since opening its doors, Pearadise founder Wilhelmy has been at the center of misconduct allegations.

Several women have claimed they were touched by him without consent, allegations which he denies.

These allegations have been put under the microscope in the three-part Investigation Discovery and HBO documentary, Big Girls Wanted: Escaping Pearadise.

'At Pearadise, he's easing you into his fetish,' former Pearadise member Ivy Colligan, who joined the house when she was 25, said of Wilhelmy.

'If you're in his house, you kinda have to let him grab you,' she said in the documentary, adding that having sex with Wilhelmy 'wasn't required' but it 'felt like an unspoken rule.'

'Stefan wants a harem of fat women he can pick and choose from on a daily basis,' Colligan added.

In the series, Kask also claimed that Wilhelmy had romantic or physical encounters with many of the women in the house.

'As far as I know, I was the only woman in the house at that time who was not having a relationship with Stefan,' she said.

In a statement shared with the Daily Mail, Wilhelmy said Kask is 'correct' to say that during her time here, the 'regulars' who were around and were keeping her company did have some kind of adult relationships with him.

However, Wilhelmy denied Colligan's claims that he 'expected' anything sexual from the women.

He said: 'Ivy came in at a time when things were definitely more adult oriented and people knew exactly what they were walking into.

'Not only that, but many of them indeed came with the full intent of having an "adult experience."

'I absolutely never "expected" or "pressured" anyone into anything here, especially of the adult nature.'

Wilhelmy told the Daily Mail that in that era, some of the women competed for his attention.

He claimed that on occasion, they put him in uncomfortable situations.

'That unspoken rule would have been more between some of the women, who came here with a full intent to engage in the more sexual side of the "free body expression" movement we were having here,' he said.

Speaking in the documentary in response to the allegations of abuse, Wilhelmy said they do not accurately reflect what 'actually occurred.'

'I believe in treating everybody like how I want to be treated,' he said.

'For anybody that's ever been in my presence, if I ever said anything or did anything, if you ever felt uneasy about me, then I'm sorry. That was never my intention.'

The Pearadise website also has a section dedicated to his response to the allegations made against him.

This page 'exists to collect the relevant timeline, public context, selected materials, and documented records relating to allegations made about Wilhelmy, Pearadise, and the Pearadise community,' it reads.

In 2021, Wilhelmy filed a lawsuit against five of the women in the District Court in Clark County, Nevada, alleging 'defamation, false light invasion of privacy, intentional interference with contractual relations, aiding and abetting, conspiracy, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.'

He brought the case after the women claimed Pearadise was not a safe space for BBWs, that Wilhelmy was a predator, and that he sexually assaulted two women.

He asserted that the allegations were false.

Wilhelmy sought $1 million in damages and asked for an injunction that would prohibit the women from publicly speaking out against him.

The women fought back through Nevada's Anti-SLAPP protections, and his lawsuit was dismissed.

Kask was 27 when she visited Pearadise and was shocked that besides the house mother, Heather, she was one of the oldest women there.

Many of the women, she said, were in their early 20s, and weighed anywhere between 400 to 600 pounds.

Shedding light on her time at the house, Kask said that most of the day is livestreamed.

Wilhelmy has enabled multiple audio enabled cameras around the compound.

Speaking in the documentary, he explained: 'I have full control of the entire house. We have the cameras in all the public areas and outside.

'There's no cameras in any of the bedrooms or any of the bathrooms, of course.'

The women eating together would be streamed directly online to the huge following that has amassed.

'Nobody in my life ever considers me an early riser, but I would get up first there, and that was one of the things I really liked about being there,' she recalled.

'I would wake up at probably like 11am and the house would be quiet, and I would go like swim in the pool by myself in the morning, and it was a very peaceful, nice way to like start.

'Then people kind of start waking up around like 1pm.

There would be a family breakfast that would happen together, and that's around the time the live streams would start.

'As soon as food is on the table, the live streaming would start, and there were people who appeared to be waiting online for Pearadise to come on.'

Kask noted that she would often see the same users pop up during the livestreams and they would have questions for certain women in the house.

If one of the women wasn't in the stream, users would ask where they were.

'It would really feel like the majority of the day was live streamed,' she said. 'And at nights there would either be a party or friends from nearby would come over, and there would be meals.

'All that would go on and be live streamed until the end of the day and then Pearadise after dark would happen.'

Wilhelmy confirmed her claim in a statement shared with Daily Mail.

'We do live stream regularly here, but the house cameras are not tied into that,' he said.

'We have a rather simple setup with an iPhone 13 pro max with a fish eye lens on a battery tripod that allows us to live stream for hours at a time uninterrupted. The feed only comes from the phone itself, and we carry it around to show our daily life, interact with the chat and let people participate virtually.

'The house CCTV system was originally a project I built for myself after the house flooded in 2016 from a broken toilet line upstairs, causing significant damage and repair efforts.

'Since the flooding happened while I was out of the country, I wanted to have a way to keep an eye on my property at all times.

'Going into the Pearadise era, these cameras have come in handy many times, not only to investigate and confirm suspected theft by party guests but many times to capture, clip and then publish funny events like someone falling, slipping, a joke, people scaring each other.

'Everybody knows where the house cameras are and there are none in any sensitive or private areas.'

Wilhelmy added that he does stream the family style dinners at Pearadise, which sees the women take turns obtaining groceries and cooking for the house.

'We do entertain our TikTok live stream during dinner time,' he said. 'For myself, this is way more entertaining than watching TV in the background and we get to chat with our audience.'

Although it's presented as a mecca, Kask's time at Pearadise didn't always reflect that and she said young and impressionable women might feel a false sense of empowerment there.

'If you come to a house like this… you [might think] I can find this sisterhood and now I can turn this into this way that is a fetish for men that I can make money online with,' she said.

'It gets distorted with the idea of empowerment, because in that moment that feels like it feels like empowerment.

'It's like this thing that they've been using against me, now I'm gonna actually drain some guys' pockets on the internet for this.'

Kask believes that a lot of women flock to Pearadise because they want sisterhood, and that's a lot of what's being advertised on TikTok.

She wishes it was advertised more accurately.