The O.C. actress Mischa Barton has opened up about her battle to keep the lid on a sex tape being peddled around by a former boyfriend, in an exclusive interview with Dr. Phil.
While the episode won't air until April 3 (US time), a snippet of the interview has been released online in which Barton discusses what it's like being the victim of a revenge porn attack.
When asked by Phil McGraw when she first found out about the sex tape - which was allegedly being hawked for US$500,000 - Barton said it was only a matter of a few months ago.
"It got to me because somebody came up to me on the street, outside of the building [I was] leaving, and said, 'There's something I need to tell you'," the Pups star explained.
"I didn't believe it at first - I couldn't believe it - because I had loved this person and I didn't think it was possible, and I later learned that it was entirely possible."
Barton has filed a police report and a restraining order against her former boyfriend since finding out about the footage he was trying to sell - but she says while he didn't financially blackmail her with it, it was still a highly emotive experience.
"It was obviously complete emotional blackmail - it's one of those things where I needed to distance myself from all of these people immediately, because there's not much you can do," she said.
"It's really out of your hands, and it was a crime. It really is a serious crime to tape people without their knowledge like that, and I had made a mistake to put myself in that situation with that person, so I just removed myself from it as quickly as I could.
"And then it just continued to be complete emotional abuse after that, for the last several months."
Earlier this month, Barton's attorney Lisa Bloom said the video was "recorded without [Barton's] consent by someone she was seeing at the time" - and promised, if it did leak online, that she would "come after" the perpetrator.
"We will fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law. You proceed at your peril."
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