Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mischa’s revenge porn hell
Ex-boyfriend tried to sell sex tape to adult site for £375k
ACTRESS Mischa Barton said she was left “devastated” when her ex tried to sell a sex tape of the pair.
The former OC star, whose mum Nuala is Irish, became a revenge porn victim when former flame Jon Zacharias touted footage for £375,000,
The 32-year-old beauty hired a celebrity lawyer and he was banned from selling the film which she said was obtained without consent.
She told Broadly’s The Scarlet Letter Reports that she ignored signs and warnings about Zacharias. She said: “I felt like was safe. One of his friends said to me, ‘You should be careful about him’.
“I’d already started to sense around this time that there was a problem, and then he started bragging about it to the wrong people, who came to me.
“But then there was still no specific proof and you’d just hope it would disap- pear. Finally, it broke in the press. I woke up one day to my friend who said, ‘This is all over the press. And apparently, all these porn sites are looking to buy it’. I was completely devastated.”
At the time, Barton admitted she had no idea what revenge porn was but immediately felt “rage and fear and uncerhe tainty”. She said: “That’s what most predators bank on. That you’ll have that shame inside and you won’t fight back.
“Your head is spinning and you don’t know what to do. But I was raised much stronger than that.”
Last year, The Sixth Sense star accused her ex Adam Spaw of secretly filming her during sex and taking showers without her consent, while they were together.
The actress admits the rise of the #Metoo feminist movement has given her the hope that no one will have to go through what she did.