Gabrielle Union opens up about the nude photo hack and why the hackers are criminals.
Nude photos of Being Mary Jane’s Gabrielle Union were released several months ago and when the photos hit the internet, Union was on vacation with her husband Dwayne Wade. During a Cosmopolitan conference the actress recently spoke out against the nude photo hacks saying “I didn’t do anything wrong – no matter what people describe to me, [the hackers are] criminals.”
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Once, the photos hit 4chan, Union contacted the FBI about the nude photo hack. Union explains:
We were taking a “family-moon” with the kids in Turks and Caicos—I’m on this island paradise with my family and I had hoped they had apprehended these criminals, but they hadn’t. In the moment, I froze. I was mortified, terrified. … I just didn’t know what to do. I felt I had given so much of myself, but I had saved a little bit for myself and for my husband, and they had taken that from me.
Gabrielle Union explains that all of the women that were targeted in the nude photo hack did nothing wrong: “I didn’t do anything wrong—no matter what people describe to me, ‘It’s your fault, you’re stupid to take nude photos, that’s what happens when you’re a celebrity’—all this nonsense, … they’re criminals. What you do with your own body is your choice. Period. There’s no gray matter there. And when someone takes your choice away and your power away over your own body, it’s a crime. Period. A hacking scandal? We’re lessening it, making it more palatable for mass consumption, but it’s a crime.”
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Union also criticized Apple for allowing this to happen:
Over a hundred women were targeted—if these women weren’t celebrities, there would be much more outrage, but because we’re female celebrities. “We weren’t good victims and we enjoyed it, all PR is good PR.” That’s what they say. …
All of the 100 women who were targeted were Apple users. You would think the companies would be more helpful in taking the illegally-obtained images down, and they were not as helpful as you’d think as consumers. You’d hope they’d care as much about you as you do about the new iPhone 6.
Read more: Hollywood Male Celebs Start to Panic after Latest Nude Photo Leaks
Gabrielle Union wrote a piece about her experience for the December issue of Cosmo.
This is not the first time Gabrielle Union has been a victim of sexual assault. When she was 19 the aspiring actress was raped at gunpoint. In an interview with The View, Union explained how that experience affected her.
‘When something catastrophic happens in life everyone rallies around you but it’s not for something positive and I hated that.
‘I hated feeling like a victim, it makes you lazy. I wanted to embrace being a survivor. I was raised to be an independent woman. That’s the road I decided to take.’
Gabrielle Union has just finished filming the second season of Being Mary Jane in Atlanta, Georgia’s Screen Gems Studios. The new season of Being Mary Jane will premiere on BET February 3rd 2015.
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