Mischa Barton was left feeling a "mixture of rage and fear" when she learned she had been the victim of a revenge porn crime.
Last year, the 32-year-old actress was embroiled in a court case – which she eventually won – with former partner Jon Zacharias after he tried to sell explicit videos of her following their split.
Their battle came to an end in June with Jon being banned from distributing the images – as well as being handed a restraining order – and the beauty has now opened up on feeling "afraid" when she discovered what was happening.
She said: "I was afraid. I was a lot of things. It was a mixture of emotions. I’m sure a lot of women who go through anything similar, feel the same kind of mixture of rage and fear and uncertainty.
"I think that’s what most predators are banking on. That you’ll have that shame inside and that you won’t fight back. And to be honest, your head is spinning and you don’t know what to do. But at the end of the day, I was raised much stronger than that."
Mischa knew immediately that she had to take Jon to court over the videos – which were filmed secretly without her consent – because if "he had done it before, he could do it again."
She added: "And also I had no choice. He was now trying to sell it for money. He put a half-million dollar price tag on it."
The former ‘O.C.’ actress was devastated when she discovered Jon’s actions, as she had always felt "safe" with him.
She said: "I felt like he was safe. I didn’t know forever until one of his friends came to me and said, ‘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 disappear. Finally, it broke in the press. I woke up one day to my friend downstairs and she was like, ‘Wake up. You have to get up because this is all over the press. And apparently all these porn sites are looking to buy it.’ And I was, as you can imagine, completely devastated."
Mischa was scared to stand up for herself at the time of the court case, but says she’s "lucky" to be living in a time where women’s voices are being heard.
Speaking to Broadley’s ‘The Scarlet Letter Reports’, she said: "It was extremely taboo. I had no idea what revenge porn was – that was completely foreign to me … I think we’re lucky to be living in a time now, finally, when we can bring the discussion of feminism back up and women’s empowerment. There’s strength in the discussion."
Mischa Barton felt ‘rage and fear’ during revenge porn case
