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Pretty Little Liars actress Lucy Hale fires back after topless photos are stolen: ‘Embarrassed? No. Angry? Yes.’

Emily Yahr
Saturday 24 December 2016 16:05 GMT
Lucy Hale
Lucy Hale (Getty)

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After the massive celebrity photo hack two years ago, when multiple female stars had their intimate pictures stolen and posted online, many people blamed the victims for the crime: One common refrain was “Don’t take nude selfies,” or a variation of, “What did you expect if you took naked photos?”

“Pretty Little Liars” star Lucy Hale faced a similar reaction on Thursday night after TMZ reported that two topless photos were stolen from the actress’s phone and published on a website; her lawyer sent a letter demanding they be removed. On Twitter, many fans sent supportive messages — but one user tweeted, “Well, Lucy Hale must be embarrassed.”

While a common instinct might be to ignore the Internet entirely after a horrible invasion of privacy, Hale, 27, decided to address the matter directly. “Why would I be embarrassed?” she tweeted back almost immediately. “I got violated and someone illegally stole my photos. Embarrassed? No. angry? Yes.”

The Twitter user immediately backed down and wrote the original tweet had been a joke, but fans jumped to defend Hale. “Why are people acting as if it’s your fault? Once again a woman’s personal things were violated and the woman gets blamed,” another user wrote.

Shortly after, Hale elaborated with a longer statement: “Well, I wasn’t going to comment on something so ridiculous, but since 2017 is gonna be all about speaking my truth…I’m going to say something,” she wrote. “Once again, a woman in the public eye was violated, stolen from and her private life and body were exposed for anyone to see. I will not apologize for living my life and having a personal life that is all mine. It’s truly unfortunate that being exposed in this way is allowed.”

The site that published the photos eventually deleted them, according to the New York Daily News.

Copyright: Washington Post.

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