Mischa Barton is speaking out on behalf of all women after a sex tape of the actress was filmed without her consent. The 31-year-old appeared on Dr. Phil to talk about how she discovered that her sex tape was being shopped around and the emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of the partner who betrayed her.
"Somebody came up to me on the street… and said there’s something I need to tell you and I didn’t believe it at first, I couldn’t believe it," she told the talk show host.
What made it worse is that she loved and trusted the partner who filmed this intimate moment without her consent. She has to deal with the stress of her privacy being violated, as well as learning that a person she cared for is not who she thought they were.
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"It was a crime," she continued. "It is a serious crime to tape people without their knowledge like that and I had made the mistake of putting myself in the situation with the person so I just removed myself as quickly as I could, and then it just continued to be complete emotional abuse after that for the last several, several months."
To combat the crime, Barton hired lawyer Lisa Bloom, who released a statement about the incident on Facebook.
"There’s a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography," Bloom wrote in the post. "Revenge pornography is a form of sexual assault, and it is also a crime and a civil wrong in California. And we will not stand for it...We will find you, and we will come after you. We will fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law. You proceed at your peril."
This comes after an already difficult year for Barton, who back in January was taken to the hospital after she was drugged while celebrating her 31st birthday.
"I voluntarily went to get professional help, and I was informed by their staff that I had been given GHB," she said in a statement. "After an overnight stay, I am home and doing well...This is a lesson to all young women out there, be aware of your surroundings."
Here's to hoping justice is served so the actress can finally find some peace.