'Sopranos' Star Drea de Matteo Credits OnlyFans For Saving Her Family

Drea de Matteo says when her family hit hard times, they were saved by the most unlikely of heroes ... OnlyFans subscribers who helped pay their bills.

The 'Sopranos' actress sat down for an interview with DailyMail where she revealed she launched the online account back in August because her house was going into foreclosure, and she said she only had about $10 in the bank.

While it might be seen as polarizing for some, DDM credited the subscribers-based site with saving her family ... and she said she's comfortable with anyone judging her because she did what any good mother would do -- sacrifice personal pride for her children.

Drea admitted she wasn't exactly flush with cash at the time ... saying most of her acting career was spent working from paycheck to paycheck despite appearing in 48 episodes of "The Sopranos" ... plus other projects, of course.

But, she says she had enough money to save her home from foreclosure within five minutes of starting her OnlyFans -- for which she charges $15 a month. Honestly, that's incredible.

She's all good on the family front though ... 'cause Drea said she asked her daughters for their blessing before firing up the OF account -- and they said it was totally OK.

As for acting work ... Drea's maintained that speaking out against the COVID-19 vaccine and refusing to get the jab has limited career opportunities in Hollywood, which made starting OnlyFans that much more essential.

But, OF seems to be funding more of Drea's dream ... 'cause she said it gave her the money she needed to start her new clothing brand, Ultrafree -- a new venture she talked about with us earlier this month on "TMZ Live."