Meeting the man who posts my pictures on wikiFeet

An interview with the man who keeps uploading my feet to wikiFeet.

Back in the fall, I received a text from a man I had just started seeing. “Are u on wikifeet?” I laughed and said “no.” Then he sent me a link to my wikiFeet page. I had never heard of the website—basically an encyclopedia of celebrity-foot photos for fetishists and foot enthusiasts—until that moment.

To be clear, I am not a celebrity. I have a decent Twitter following from having reported on politics for more than a decade. But I was shocked to be looking at my own wikiFeet profile, which included my full name, birthday, and photos of me and my exposed feet dating back to 2013. The images seemed to have been lifted from my Instagram page, which I keep public. My feet had a rating of 3.5 out of five stars, which categorized them as “okay.”

I wasn’t offended or unnerved. I mostly thought it was funny and posted a video of me wiggling my painted toes to my Instagram Story “for my fans” as a joke. Within minutes, a screenshot of it showed up on wikiFeet.

My investigative-journalist instincts kicked in. I posted a Story that said, “If you are the person posting my foot content please DM me! No shade, I just have questions.”

The man reached out. His name is Robert Hamilton, a 58-year-old salesman from northern New Jersey. “Okay,” he wrote. “What questions do you have? I admit I posted, if it bothers you I apologize and will not do it again.”

Hamilton agreed to go on the record. We spoke for an hour, almost entirely about feet.

Is it just Robert, or do you go by something else? You sound young. Yeah, just Robert. And I’m almost 60 years old, young lady.

Do you consider yourself a foot fetishist? Yes.

Since when? Age 6.

That’s very specific. What happened when you were 6? A couple things happened. I have five sisters—well, I had five; two passed away. A lot of their friends would come around, and we had a pool in the backyard, and they’d be barefoot. I would give them foot massages.

What was the other thing? When I was about 9, these older girls moved on my block, right? We were playing this game, and they were like, “We captured you. You’re the bad guy.” They tied me to a lawn chair with my hands over my head, and they started tickling my feet, and it just drove me crazy.

I think that’s what made me realize there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s fun. So I’m thinking to myself, Hey, what is the problem with this? I’m not hurting anybody, I’m not robbing banks. I decided, Who gives a shit?

How do you interact with wikiFeet? Well, if I’m watching a movie with a beautiful actress, I’ll go on there and check out her feet.

Or if I’m reading a story about someone who I think is very pretty, I’m gonna go check and see if she’s on there. Because I’m curious, and I love feet.

How many photos have you posted there?

A couple hundred.

What makes a foot attractive to you? I like the painted toes. I like an arch, the more pronounced the better. I like a rounded big toe.

I’ve noticed that sometimes within ten minutes of me posting an Instagram Story that shows my feet, the screenshot is up on wikiFeet. Are you just on Instagram waiting for new foot content to drop? I don’t sit here looking for it. If I happen to see it and like it, I’ll put it on there. But I’m not sitting here all day staring. That doesn’t pay the bills.

So why not just look at feet on Instagram or screenshot them for yourself? What do you get out of posting them to another website? You know, that’s a great question. I don’t really get anything out of it. I just like to share it. People like feet, like me, and you have beautiful feet, and I just put it on there. There isn’t much of a community on wikiFeet. It’s not like people can heart the photos. Sometimes someone will send you a note like, “That’s a good picture. Good job.” I just like to share the picture with other people, I’m generous that way.

Do you ever think about how it might be a bit invasive to take someone’s personal photos and put them on a fetish site without their knowledge or consent? Yes, I do think that, you know, except I can’t call up Jennifer Aniston and ask. But it does cross my mind, because I have sisters and nieces, and I guess not everybody would be kosher with it. I do have a conscience. People seem to have a good sense of humor about it. I mean, you obviously do. Some celebrities say it’s a badge of honor.

What are the best feet you’ve ever seen?

Marilyn Monroe, Laura Bassett—I’m asskissin’, baby!—Grace Kelly, Rita Hayworth.

You’ve posted Rita’s feet? Yeah, I did. But she’s gone, so I don’t think she gives a shit.

Do you rate women’s feet on wikiFeet? Yes. Do you ever rate them poorly? No, you know why—and this is silly—but I don’t wanna hurt their feelings. If they’re ugly, I just don’t go there again.

What are your main interests besides feet and the Yankees? Live music. The last concert I went to was Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul at the Beacon Theatre, November 2019, just before I got this damn heart surgery that almost killed me.

You almost died? Yeah, I had a quadruple bypass. But you know what? When I was in the hospital, I had the nurse coming in at night showing me her feet. I actually took her out to dinner a couple times. I can just get girls out of their shoes—it’s a thing I can do.