Such is the popularity of the Netflix series Tiger King that even someone who doesn’t appear on-camera can experience the benefits—and challenges—of the frenzied exposure. Case in point: The show includes footage of Jeff Lowe telling pregnant wife Lauren that he wants to hire a nanny who is “enjoyable to look at,” though it’s not revealed whether Jeff gets his way. In the wake of the series’ popularity, Lowe announced that the family had hired Masha Diduk, a model and Las Vegas bottle girl (a cocktail waitress specializing in high-end customers) who frequently posts seductive photos on Instagram. Cue the haters.

The 27-year-old Diduk quickly learned that this is enough info for some people to assume they have her pegged and make their opinions known on social media. In a Zoom interview with Playboy, she acknowledges that Jeff perhaps didn’t help her cause with his prurient remarks but insists the public doesn’t fully understand her arrangement with the couple; to Diduk, the relationship is no craven publicity stunt. Here, the Ukraine native explains what her critics get wrong, why she can (somewhat) empathize with Joe Exotic and why she’s not impressed by guys who pay five figures at her nightclub to get closer to her.

PLAYBOY: How are you handling all the new attention from the show?

DIDUK: People are bored and throwing hate my way. They’re like, “You’re not a model; you’re a hooker. That’s just what girls say who live in Vegas.” When I did an interview with TMZ, they missed that I work as a bottle waitress. My nightclub Hakkasan is currently closed, but I still do my Instagram posts, so I’m still getting work.

Ever since it was released that I work with Jeff and Lauren as their nanny, people just started saying mean stuff, like “Why do you work for them when they’re terrible people?” They’ve been nothing but good to me, and the animals are treated very lovingly. I don’t believe they should be in cages, but in this particular case, with tigers, they’re close to being extinct. If these tigers were out in the wild, they would get poached.

PLAYBOY: The way Jeff talks on the show about wanting a hot nanny may have led people to assume it was a romantic arrangement.

DIDUK: Of course. But it’s also TV, and it would be boring if you just watched him say, “Oh, we want a nanny.” No one would remember that, so this is fun and entertaining. But just because I’m around, people immediately assume the worst of me and call me names. I have a boyfriend; he knows Jeff and Lauren and has been to the zoo with me, but people throw shade at us. I think people in quarantine are miserable and want others to feel miserable.

PLAYBOY: People assume they know someone based on one fact about them.

DIDUK: People are freaking slaughtering me and calling me names, and I responded by calling someone ugly or a bitch, and they’re like, “Oh my God, you must be ugly on the inside.” I wonder if these people could put up with the heat they’re giving off. You’re going to judge me on my appearance, but you’re not going to show your face because I would probably level you if I really wanted to.

PLAYBOY: How long have you known Jeff and Lauren?

DIDUK: About four years. A friend of mine in Vegas was like, “We’re having people come over with baby tigers, if you want to see them.” I’d been to Chiang Mai in Thailand and played with the tigers, but I wanted to see them in Vegas, so that’s when I met Jeff and Lauren. They had a little lemur, a tiger and a liger cub, and we carried the animals inside with nice pet carriers. They don’t cram them in suitcases, so I don’t know where the show got their reenactment from.

PLAYBOY: Did you know they were looking for a nanny?

DIDUK: This was four years ago, so I didn’t know any of this was going to happen. Eventually they reached out to me like, “Hey, we’re looking for a nanny, and we’re doing the show.” They hired me in September. They wanted me more for their new park because they’re going to be a little busier moving everything over there. It hasn’t opened yet, so I’ve just been getting to know the baby and being a part of their life.

PLAYBOY: Have you worked in childcare before?

DIDUK: I have a little brother. That doesn’t count as working, but I’ve had that experience. It’s a motherly instinct thing. Anyone can do it if they care about kids. It’s not hard; she’s just a baby, so she’s very simple, and she doesn’t cry. Just because I’m pretty or I model, people assume I can’t take care of a child. It’s crazy how people label others. Have they seen my résumé, and have they seen how I am as a person? No, they just saw that I post bikini pictures online, and they immediately got mad.

PLAYBOY: Have you had to deal with that in general in your life—with people assuming they know you based on your looks?

DIDUK: Of course. People want to be mean and say I’ve had all this plastic surgery done and I’m fake. Honestly, I’m very open about the things I’ve had done: I obviously have fake boobs. A lot of people have been saying recently that I have a fake nose, which I definitely don’t. I’ve had filler before in my lips and in my cheeks, but I haven’t had filler in three years, and my face is natural. I don’t know why people want to assume everything about me is fake because I live in Vegas. I’ve only been in Vegas for five years; I was born in the Ukraine and raised in Philadelphia.

PLAYBOY: How often do you see the baby?

DIDUK: It’s a loose schedule right now, and mostly on the weekends. They’re not as busy because of the quarantine, and she’s really little now, so she’s spending a lot of time with Lauren. The last time I saw the baby was about three weeks ago. People are calling it a publicity stunt. I don’t know where they got that from or why they’re so obsessed with it. I didn’t really put it out there at first, because it wasn’t anyone’s business. I started posting pictures, and people just went crazy, and that’s exactly what I thought would happen.

PLAYBOY: Everyone has opinions because it’s such a popular show.

DIDUK: I do believe that all that negativity is aimed at Joe. People are like, “How can you work for someone like that?” I’m like, “I’m not working for Joe. Joe’s in jail because he was killing tigers.” Jeff and Lauren don’t kill their tigers. And I don’t think breeding is terrible, because there are more of them now, so they’re not going to be extinct.

People are mad that I travel to Oklahoma during the quarantine, but it’s not like they haven’t been to the grocery store. There are definitely more people at the grocery store than at the airport, where it looks like a ghost town. I haven’t gotten sick, so I guess I’m okay.

PLAYBOY: How do Jeff and Lauren feel about their portrayal on the show?

DIDUK: They’re like, “They’re trying to make us look like some kind of bad guys.” Every story needs a villain, and the producers were trying to make it that Jeff stole the zoo from Joe. But in the show you can see that Joe needed somebody to put money into it, and that’s what Jeff and Lauren have been doing.

PLAYBOY: On the show we see exotic animals in hotel rooms where people are partying. Is this common in Vegas?

DIDUK: Everything is normal in Vegas. With the tigers in the rooms, people aren’t drinking and getting hammered and throwing them around; people are excited to see them and are gentle. I was totally sober when I went there. Jeff and Lauren would leave with the kitties and make sure they were safe, so they’re not just going to leave them around people who are wasted. People are bashing me for holding a baby liger, but if they had the chance, they would probably do it too.

PLAYBOY: Are you still working as a model?

DIDUK: I started modeling just because I was pushed into it. People were like, “You’re so tall, you’re so pretty—you should model.” So I was signed to Wilhelmina and a few other agencies. People refer to me as an Instagram model, and I am that, but I also have a legit agency and have done shows like Gossip Girl. Modeling has evolved, so you don’t have to be anorexic anymore, which is great, because it was really hard. I was 15 years old and weighed 110 pounds, and the agencies were like, “You need to lose weight—your thighs are too big.”

When I was on the East Coast I did a lot more runway stuff and high fashion because I’m five-foot-10 and I had the bone structure for it before I got my boobs done. I’ve been to castings for Victoria’s Secret and I’ve done work for L’Oréal, but it’s really competitive, and it’s not the same scene if you’re living in Vegas. As I’m getting older, it’s still an option for me, but not as much as when I was younger.

PLAYBOY: What does your boyfriend make of all this attention you’re getting?

DIDUK: He just thinks it’s funny. He works at the Wynn as a host. People DM him like, “Your girlfriend’s a whore; you should break up with her. Do you know that Jeff banged your girl?” And he’s like, “Oh, sick story, man. Bros for life—I’ll go break up with her right now.” But we live together. He’s very comfortable, and he knows how I am, so he thinks it’s entertaining that people love to just make drama.

PLAYBOY: What is your take on Joe Exotic landing in prison?

DIDUK: I feel like Carole Baskin really was ruining his life, and I can almost see why he was trying to hire a hit man. She cost him millions, and she cost herself millions, but she was doing the same thing Joe was doing. Her park is the same as his, and her tigers are in cages as well.

Once it was out that Joe was killing them, it’s a different story. Apparently the tigers weren’t sick, from what Jeff and Lauren told me. He would come up to the cages and just kill them, which is really sad and terrible, and he belongs in jail for that, for sure. I don’t think he’s going to get a lesser sentence; I don’t think he deserves it.

PLAYBOY: Have you met Carole?

DIDUK: I have not met Carole. I did a little TikTok to the “Carole Baskin killed her husband” song. It’s pretty funny. Jeff and Lauren are convinced she killed him. For me, there’s just something about the way she acted during interviews, like “If I fed him to tigers, I’d cover him in sardine oil.” That was super specific—why would you randomly think of that? Don just disappeared into thin air, unless he ran away and is living his best life with his mistress.

PLAYBOY: This show has some pretty unusual characters.

DIDUK: “Hitman” Allen is so sweet. I don’t think he could kill anyone; he’s just so nice and chill. He still works at the zoo, and people at the park come up to him to take pictures, but he’s super shy.

PLAYBOY: He’s okay with his story line on the show?

DIDUK: I don’t think he likes to be known as that, but he’s just going with it. He looks bad on the show, so what else is he going to do? [laughs]

PLAYBOY: Will you go back to cocktail waitressing when the quarantine is over?

DIDUK: For sure. I love my job, and I make good money. I meet a lot of people like Jeff and Lauren; they used to come into the club all the time. I used to have a Tinder, even while I was in a relationship, just to have people go to my Instagram. I have $10,000 tables where men requested me, and later in the night, the guy’s like, “I saw you on Tinder, so I requested you as my waitress. I knew you worked here after looking at your Instagram.” I was like, “Oh, that’s fucking weird.” [laughs] You’re spending $10,000 and found me on Tinder. So I don’t have a Tinder anymore because I don’t want people to stalk me.

PLAYBOY: Does the show accurately depict Jeff and Lauren’s lifestyle as far as the polyamory?

DIDUK: It’s part of their lifestyle, but it’s not my business, and I don’t really ask about it. We all laugh and make jokes. They’re very open about it. People were commenting, “His poor wife; she’s probably so uncomfortable.” And I’m like, “She loves it.” She’s all about it, and she wouldn’t be around if she didn’t care for this lifestyle.

PLAYBOY: People are talking about a potential Hollywood version. Have you thought about who should play Jeff or Lauren?

DIDUK: I haven’t, but there’s a sports betting site that has little prop bets on who’s going to play Joe, Carole, Lauren and Jeff. There was one for me that’s like, “Will the nanny get more than 275,000 Instagram followers by May 1?” [Editor’s note: Alas for those who took the over, Diduk has 266,000 followers at press time.]

PLAYBOY: Any idea who should play you?

DIDUK: I don’t even know. Can I play myself? The part wouldn’t be that big: carrying a baby around, feeding her in the distance somewhere. I can do it.