For three years Michelle Gurule enjoyed a very profitable relationship with a sugar daddy more than twice her age.

But his desire to turn their agreement into a full blown relationship unearthed a big secret that made her put an end to their deal. 

Gurule was 24 and dancing at a strip club in Denver, Colorado, when she met her sugar daddy, who she gives the pseudonym John Linghu. 

He swooped in at just the right time offering her a life of wealth, dental visits, and luxury that she admits she could never have afforded herself.

She was halfway through college with $35,000 in student loan debt, so she stripped and worked shifts at Whole Foods, desperately trying to make ends meet while living with her parents.

In her new book, ‘Thank You, John’, Gurule delves into the intricacies of her three-year relationship with John, 55, as she reflects on it a decade later.

At first, he just took her out to restaurants and they would talk but it quickly progressed to sex, shopping trips and weekends away.

He gave her $400 for a brief chat at the strip club, $1,200 for their dinners, and eventually monthly payments of $4,800. 

He even paid for $40,000 worth of dental work that she’d needed for years and $10,000 when she graduated from college.

Michelle Gurule was 24 when she entered a sugar babying arrangement with a 55-year-old man

Gurule began stripping at 19 and met her sugar daddy when he visited her club. She is pictured above aged 19 in the dressing room of a strip club

Gurule’s new book is a memoir about her experience with a sugar daddy from aged 24-27

All in all, her sugar baby salary for those three years was $60,000 a year, making for a grand total of $180,000 in her pocket. 

She told Daily Mail: ‘My original plan was that, if I could leave with $10,000, then it’ll change the rest of my life.’ 

The first time they were intimate she recalled strategically placing hair and finger prints in her bathroom in case something went seriously wrong. 

She remarked: ‘There was this feeling, this sensation, and I think I felt this way the first time I had ever danced. I was like, I’m going to be on stage. Undressed.

‘I was so anxious that like the body goes numb or something and then you’re just like, can I do it?’

It turns out, she could. In her book she described becoming a sugar baby as her destiny. 

She began hooking up with him in a hotel once a week for $1,200. She was compensated for getting to first, second, and third base with him.

He told her: ‘The more often we do home runs the more gifts you will get.’ 

Eventually, ‘home runs’ were taken off the table. But as long as they were intimate she was compensated the same amount 

She said: ‘I don’t think anyone could have told me if it would be worth it for me or not. I think that was something I had to figure out.’ 

Gurule mentions she didn’t squander the money on luxuries. ‘As soon as I got this money, I’m paying my debt off. I’m going to the dentist… this is a very practical decision,’ she stated.

Thanks to their arrangement, Gurule was able to pay off her student loans, get $40,000 of dental work, and get a new car that she still drives today 

Gurule finally ended the relationship when he proposed and she discovered he was still married to a woman he claimed was his ex

Eventually he moved to DC, and she visited him once a month on the East Coast.

She would arrive on a Thursday evening and stay with him until the following Sunday. For one ‘pleasure session’ per day, she left the four-day weekend with $4,800.

That was $1,200 per session with no upcharge for the additional hours she’d spent with him.

He’d take her shopping at Target and Ulta, but having grown up poor, she never liked to spend more than $200. They’d dine at fancy restaurants, but payment only followed their intimacy afterwards.

Gurule never felt the need to hide the arrangement from her family. They knew she was going to be pragmatic about the money she received and that she was doing what she thought she had to to get by. 

She said: ‘My family is very, was very loving and supportive and I’m just grateful for that.’ 

But the relationship came to a crashing halt when he proposed. She said: ‘I feel like he was never transparent with me about what he actually wanted. 

‘I think what he actually wanted ultimately was to find someone to actually marry that he would spend his life with. 

Gurule grew up poor and felt badly about spending more than $200 on their shopping sprees

Her sugar daddy bought her a car that she still drives now to replace the vehicle pictured when she met him

‘And that is absolutely not what I was looking for.’ 

When she turned him down he started to make more and more extravagant offers presumably in hopes of tying her down. He said he’d support her entire family, buy them each a car and medical insurance. 

He offered to put her nephew through college and essentially pay her an exorbitant salary to be his wife.

He told her all he’d want in exchange was sex four or five times a week and to kiss every night.  

She began to feel guilty that she couldn’t compromise her future to give him what he wanted. 

But shortly after, she found out while scrolling Facebook that he was still married to the woman who he claimed was his ex-wife. 

She said: ‘Why have I been feeling so guilty? Denying this man love when he’s actually been dishonest with me.’

Gurule had poked around his DC house before and never found any evidence of this whole other life.  

So, she walked away from the relationship with $35,000 in her pocket and no student loan debt. 

She said that being a sugar baby was her ‘destiny’ and she had to find out for herself if it would be worth it

She wrote in her book: ‘It must be said that even in the face of all the concession – my body, my sanity, my honesty, my joy – it was an insufferable feat to leave behind a life of ease. 

‘A life of financial security. The hope for my whole family. In that decision, there was so much at stake.’

It scared her to think about where she would be if she hadn’t agreed to this arrangement: ‘It was definitely worth it because I did get out of student loan debt and I did fix my teeth and I was able to buy a car that I’m still driving now.’

Gurule was even able to live off of the money for four or five years after. It helped her get through grad school loan-free and get to place of providing for herself.

She said: ‘For me, just having even a salary close to what I made as a sugar baby now on my own feels like very, very freeing.’

Gurule said she was fond of John and felt that they had a real friendship

Regardless of how it ended, she was fond of John and the time they spent together. 

Gurule said: ‘He was really kind and I do think we had a very genuine friendship and connection.’

John was 55 at the start of their relationship and worked in tech. By her estimate, he made about $400,000 a year during their relationship. But it seemed that all he did was work.

He used their time together to relax. He would take her shopping or to dinner or to the movies. 

She said he was ‘funny, intelligent. He was sort of lonely though’.

Gurule wants her book and subsequently her story to bring taboo subjects to the forefront. 

‘I hope what it does is shed light on these sort of stories, whether it be dancing at a club or being involved in a sugar babying arrangement. 

‘It’s just an experience people have and there’s a lot of culturally negative things people say about it, but it can really be a positive, life-changing experience,’ she said.

Gurule can’t say if becoming a sugar baby would be the right choice for other people, but it ended up being right for her. 

She recommended that other sugar babies approach the arrangement with caution and communicate clear expectations and guidelines, something she wished she’d done.

Ten years later and now married, Michelle said: ‘I feel like this book is sort of the closing chapter of this experience for me.’

Her debut memoir ‘Thank You, John’ is out now published by Unnamed Press.