Sarah is 20, studying for a business degree at Macquarie University and working part time as a model.
For the past two months she’s been seeing Mark (not his real name), a 40-year-old businessman from Mosman on Sydney’s north shore.
Despite the age gap, Sarah and Mark have plenty in common. They have similar tastes in the finer things in life, and they enjoy travelling together.
“We have a lot of fun, just spending time together, going out for a nice meal, drinking good wine – he’s just my kind of guy, he gets me,” Sarah says.
So far the pair have travelled to Hawaii, The Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne together.
“I’d never been to Hawaii, so yeah, he took me there and it was a lot of fun,” Sarah says.
Sarah might sound like your average love-struck uni student, but actually there’s more to this relationship than meets the eye.
Sarah and Mark met on Seeking Arrangement, a website that matches wealthy people looking for companionship with beautiful people after a bit more cash.
Sarah is what Seeking Arrangement calls a “sugar baby” and Mark is her “sugar daddy”.
You chat online, meet and see if the sparks fly, and then negotiate a financial arrangement that suits everyone.
Sarah calls it the “commercial side” of her relationship with Mark.
He pays for their holidays, meals, gifts and the wine they enjoy together. And he gives her $2000 a week.
“We respect each other,” Sarah says. “We’re really well suited together and we get on really well.”
Sarah and Mark have a “romantic” relationship, but she says it’s not transactional.
“I would absolutely date him if I had met him somewhere else,” she says.
Sarah first heard of Seeking Arrangement through a friend who had been using it.
She said she signed up and overnight began to receive messages.
“The people on there are just normal people, they’re businessmen and they’re busy and normal and nice.
“I’ve only had positive experiences,” she says.
“Working and studying is hard – it’s expensive, you don’t have enough time to have a full time job. It’s not something I ever thought I would really ever be doing but I’ve figured something out that works for me.”
She said setting the terms of their arrangement was surprisingly hassle free.
“It wasn’t awkward at all. I think we both knew what we wanted.”
Seeking Arrangement encourages university students to sign up for the service, offering them free membership.
The company calls it a “Sugar Baby Scholarship” and offers students who sign up from their university email accounts free membership on the site.
Sarah says while there might be a commercial side to it, her relationship with Mark is “just like a normal relationship”.
“It’s just been really exciting,” she says.
Top Comments
Ohh, so many self-righteous prissies...
Guys, life IS about sex and breeding, and practising along the way
Marriage is an invention of the church, our natural preference is to mate for 7 years (Or so)
Why try to impose your fuddy-duddy lives onto everyone else?
And 'Paid Sex' is a problem? Umm, most husbands do that anyway, look at the demands you place onto him.
Membership is free for all sugar babies. University students get a free premium membership. $2000 per week is highly unusual. Most sugar daddies use the site to solicit sex. They pretty it up, but they offer to pay a small allowance or payment upon visit in exchange for sex, although most just call it "intimacy." Most of the men are overweight although list their body type as "slim" or "athletic", often married, and are frankly quite creepy in their solicitations. Finding an attractive sugar daddy is highly unusual. Attractive men don't need sites like this.