Nicholas Hoult on Jennifer Lawrence nude hacking 'sex crime': 'It's shocking that things like that happen in the world'

In an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this week, Lawrence said the pictures had been taken and exchanged during her relationship with Hoult

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence together at Comic-Con in 2013

Nicholas Hoult, the former boyfriend and X-Men co-star of Jennifer Lawrence, has addressed the nude photo hacking scandal, which saw a number of indecent images of the actress leak online last month.

In an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this week, Lawrence said the pictures had been taken and exchanged during her relationship with Hoult.

"I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years," she told the publication. "It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you."

During his appearance on Good Day New York to promote new film Young Guns yesterday, Hoult was asked about the 4Chan leak and the images of his ex-girlfriend.

"Speaking of friends, Jennifer Lawrence, she's been making a lot of news lately because of the pictures that were hacked and I think they might have been pictures that were sent to you," the presenter began.

Hoult responded, somewhat uncomfortably, saying: "It's shocking that things like that happen in the world. It's a shame."

Lawrence was one of the first of over 100 celebrities to have been targeted in the scandal.

Numerous photographs of Lawrence were distributed online in September, in what her publicist at the time called "a flagrant violation of privacy," adding that "the authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."

The 24-year-old decided not to release a statement over the incident because "every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry".

The still anonymous hackers published the images via online forum 4Chan.

The original list had also included Mary-Kate Olsen and Vanessa Hudgens, as well as Ariana Grande, Jessica Brown Findlay, Mary E Winstead, Mary E Winstead, Cara Delevingne, Kate Bosworth, Selena Gomez, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst and Kaley Cuoco.

The FBI and Apple are both conducting investigations into the apparent widespread invasion of personal accounts thought to be connected to the iCloud service.

In September, a second wave of naked images, thought to depict female stars including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, emerged online.

Earlier this week, Nick Hogan became the first male victim to be targeted.

But, Lawrence said, the incident was more than just stolen images.

"It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime," she said. "It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these websites are responsible.

"Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside."

She said that the onus also lay with anyone who looked at the pictures, who "perpetuated a sexual offense".

"You should cower with shame," she continued. "Even people who I know and love say, 'Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.' I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body."

"I don’t care how much money I get for The Hunger Games," she said. "I promise you, anybody given the choice of that kind of money or having to make a phone call to tell your dad that something like that has happened, it’s not worth it."

"Time does heal, you know," she continued on how she's coming to terms with the incident. "I’m not crying about it anymore. I can’t be angry anymore. I can’t have my happiness rest on these people being caught, because they might not be. I need to just find my own peace."

Entertainment lawyer Marty Singer has written to Google threatening to sue the company for $100 million for failing to delete private images of a dozen undisclosed female victims and demanding it pays damages for "knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating the unlawful conduct" of the 4Chan hackers.

Google has since responded, with a spokesperson telling The Independent: "We've removed tens of thousands of pictures – within hours of the requests being made – and we have closed hundreds of accounts.

"The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them."