Iggy Azalea Exits Social Media After Topless Photo Leak

Singer is angered by 'vile' comments that followed leak
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2019 11:17 AM CDT
Iggy Azalea Exits Social Media After Topless Photo Leak
Singer Iggy Azalea participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss her new album "Surviving the Summer" at AOL Studios on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, in New York.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Iggy Azalea took topless photos during a GQ photo shoot in 2016, but they were not intended for publication. They were leaked over the weekend, however, in an incident that left the Australian hip hop star "blindsided, embarrassed, violated [and] angry," she says. And after seeing some of the "vile" reactions to the photos, she deactivated all her social media accounts, the BBC reports. "A lot of the comments I see, from men in particular, sharing their thoughts and fantasies in regards to my body has honestly disturbed me," she wrote in a since-deleted statement, per Billboard (you can still read it here). "If you've ever been humiliated before in front of family and those you care about, maybe you can relate to what I'm going through." She says she will press criminal charges after the origin of the leak is discovered.

The photographer who took the pictures, Nino Muñoz, said on Instagram that the images were "stolen and published without my permission" and that he is "utterly outraged and will not rest until justice is served." He says an investigation is underway, and that publishing the photos is illegal and will be prosecuted if the perpetrator is uncovered. But Azalea is upset the pictures still existed in the first place: Taken as a birthday gift for the plastic surgeon who did her breast enlargement, Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, it was the outtakes that leaked, and "there was no reason for anyone to have kept the outtakes from the shoot," she says. "I'm surprised and angry that they were not immediately deleted after the final images were selected." (How Iggy Azalea got her stage name.)

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