Mischa Barton feels 'conned' as victim of apparent revenge porn scheme
"The O.C." star opened up on Monday's "Dr. Phil."
-- Mischa Barton is opening up about being the apparent victim of a revenge porn scheme.
"I feel very conned by the whole thing," Barton, who starred on "The O.C.," said Monday in an interview on "Dr. Phil."
She took legal action last month, she said, after that she learned a former boyfriend had taken explicit videos and images of her without her consent. She said those images were then shopped around to various media outlets by others.
Her attorney, Lisa Bloom, released a statement on Monday in which she said she has obtained restraining orders against two men "who may have been involved in surreptitiously recording, copying or disseminating intimate images of Ms. Barton without her knowledge or consent."
"This morning we got those orders extended for several weeks," Bloom continued.
Barton, 31, didn't name her ex, saying only that he was "somebody I trusted, somebody I thought I loved."
She said the two dated for just "three to four weeks. It was very fast."
"It was a crime. It is a serious crime to tape people without their knowledge like that," she added. "It was complete emotional blackmail ... It is sinister. Again, I loved this person, and I thought could trust them."
However, she said, she takes responsibility for "putting myself in that situation. I blame myself. I wish that I had stuck closer to the friends that I had for many years."
Bloom disclosed the allegations last month in a statement on Facebook.
"It has been reported that naked or sexually explicit images of Ms. Barton are being 'shopped around,'" she wrote then. "Ms. Barton does not consent to any disclosure of any such images."
Bloom continued, "There's a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography. 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."
Posting or otherwise distributing revenge porn, or nonconsensual pornography, is a crime under California law. But Bloom said the law might not be enough to keep the recordings out of circulation.
On "Good Morning America" last month, Barton stressed that revenge porn can have a devastating effect on victims.
"This is very serious," she said. "Women have committed suicide over images like this being posted. We have the right to control our bodies, we have the right to control images of our bodies, and anybody who violates those laws can and should be prosecuted.
"I'm very proud to be in California that has a strong law against this," Barton added.
This news comes nearly three months after Barton said she was hospitalized after she said she was slipped the date rape drug GHB during her own birthday party.
"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 to People magazine in January.