“We’ve known for years she’s done OnlyFans and I thought it was just posing in swimwear and lingerie,” her dad told journalist Stacey Dooley.
“We stood back because we want to continue our relationship with our daughter. We were pretty open with it,” her mum said.
However, when Phillips started to film extreme adult content, such as the infamous challenge where she bedded more than 100 guys in a matter of hours, her parents said it was tough to turn a blind eye.
“When it went to the next step, we were like, ‘no, no’,” her mum said.
Her dad said: “If there’s anything we could do to change her profession, we’d do it overnight … It’s the degradingness of it and making sure that she’s safe.”
For Phillips’ most recent sex stunt she performed an explicit act with 50 men in two hours that is too graphic to publish.
And it’s a detail that proves too much for her parents to bear, with Emma and Lindsay admitting “they’ve lost friends, been shunned by neighbours and even been accused of cashing in on her controversial career”, The Sun reports.
“Sometimes we think have we done anything wrong with her upbringing? Well, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve had nothing but nice times and love,” her dad said.
“Is it money? Because if it was money, we’d sell our house.”
He then turns to his daughter: “You could have everything you want Lily if you gave it all up now.”
The heartbreaking plea leaves Phillips visibly distressed, with the sex worker walking away in tears, according to the Mirror.
Her mum is also emotional as they apologise for upsetting her, but her dad pushes on, revealing he has received calls from strangers who tell him, “I hope your daughter dies”.
Before the doco airing on UKTV, Phillips discussed the emotional moment with her parents, describing it as “really hard to listen to”.
“They didn’t choose for me to do this and it’s not something that they’ve signed up for,” she told The Sun.
“They’re not gaining anything from this, so I think it’s just hard to put them through this.
“They don’t agree with everything I do, but I’m their daughter, and they’ll love me forever.”
However, she appears to have no regrets about her foray into the world of explicit content, telling Dooley she watched her first porn movie at 13.
“I don’t know why but I’ve been obsessed with sex from a young age,” she said. “I was always more into sex than my friends and was always talking about it at school.”
By the time she enrolled at university to study nutrition, Phillips was enjoying a sexually active lifestyle, admitting it was because of this she decided to cash in.
“I slept with hundreds of guys on nights out and thought, ‘I might as well get paid for this’,” she said.
“I was very honest with my parents about what I was doing. They weren’t thrilled, but they weren’t overly concerned either.
“They thought it was just an alter ego, confined to OnlyFans. I told them it was just webcam work, and as long as I was being safe, they accepted that. At that stage, I wasn’t having sex with anyone.”
But in the few years since her journey online began, Phillips has progressed not just to filming herself in various physical acts with strangers but pushing her escapades to the extreme.
While she was raking in cash, revealing to Dooley she is now a “multimillionaire”, the fallout has been massive.
“My parents were called money grabbers. People assumed they were taking a cut of my earnings, which wasn’t true. They even felt people were whispering about them in the supermarket – and that was tough.”
Phillips discussed her plans for the future, saying she wants to “slow down on the numbers” and instead channel her “creativity into something different”.
“I’ve even been talking with a friend who has a plane – we’d love to do something in the sky. I want ideas that feel exciting again, not just the same old numbers,” she said.
Lily Phillips’ sexual challenges push her to her limits at times. Photo / YouTube, Josh Pieters
While the candid interview with Dooley has offered insights into the effects these “sexfluencers” have on those around them, some have criticised the doco, which shows the 38-year-old TV journalist spend 72 hours with a different person in each episode.
But the decision to feature Phillips hasn’t gone down well, with some stating the presenter should not give the adult film star “a platform”.
“Really disappointing, just don’t think Stacey Dooley should be promoting or giving this girl a platform. Lowest derivative entertainment, a real regression in content from Stacey,” said one.
“Pretty grim giving that deviant airtime, not a single positive thing can come from the trainwreck of her life, screams if the worst click bait,” added another.
While one said: “Imagine glamorising this – where is everyone’s morals?”