The purchase of sex is criminalized In Sweden, and it is a phenomenon associated with shame and stigma. Sex buyers are a hidden population that can be difficult to recruit for research interviews, and conducting interviews with men purchasing sex can be a challenge. Based on interviews with 30 Swedish men who purchased sex, this paper explores the motivations for men participating in research interviews to talk about their experiences of purchasing sex. The focus of this paper is to explore their different motives for participating in a research study, how this is associated to their self-presentation and their perception of their experiences. The thematization of the material shows two major motives for participation, as a confession or as a political action. Participation as a form of confession can be understood as an expression of the shame and stigma associated with the purchase of sex, which makes it difficult for sex buyers to talk about their experiences. The motive to participate in a research interview as a form of political action can be understood in relation to the dominant political understanding of the purchase of sex in Sweden, which depicts it as a form of men’s violence against women where men purchasing sex are viewed as perpetrators. To participate in an interview can be seen as a way to present a different story of the sex buyer and to distance oneself from the stigmatized view of the sex buyer as a perpetrator and as a deviant.