There has been an uptick in men visiting escorts for company rather than sex (Picture: Getty Images) ‘I first met her in what felt like an extremely long January in 2023, when things felt quite heavy,’ says 47-year-old Michael*, recalling his first encounter with an escort. But Michael, who works in finance, doesn’t book appointments for sex. ‘I just wanted some company to be honest,’ he tells Metro.
co.uk. ‘I had been divorced for coming up to two years, but I wasn’t ready to meet anyone else – nor did I have the time.
‘I felt lonely. I wouldn’t say I am a sociable person anyway, having struggled hugely with social anxiety since my separation, but not seeing anyone for days on end was tough..
. It was starting to take a toll on my mental health.’ With a 2019 YouGov poll reporting that nearly half of UK men (44%) feel lonely ‘sometimes, often or all of the time’, and one in five men saying they have no close friends – twice as many as women – it’s clear that many in the UK are in the grip of an isolation crisis.
‘Society has and still does, for many, raise boys to believe that it is a sign of weakness to show our feelings, state that we are struggling and ask for support and help,’ explains Danny Zane, a therapist at North London Therapy. ‘Being able to openly verbalise and express our feelings has not been something we are permitted to do, and we are not taught how to. ‘We cannot hold intimate relations without being able to properly com.
