Love Island’s Zara McDermott opens up about being a victim of revenge porn twice: ‘I just wanted to die’

McDermott was just 14 the first time a private image of her was shared without her consent

(Getty Images)

Love Island’s Zara McDermott has spoken about her two experiences of being a victim of revenge porn, the first of which took place when she was just 14.

The star said a male classmate sent a naked picture around her school, after pressuring her into sending it.

McDermott was being viciously bullied at the time, and hoped sending the image might help her fit in.

In an interview with The Times, McDermott recalled how she took a picture of herself in the bath after the boy told her “it will make me like you more”.

She said: “I honestly thought that if I took the picture, it would make him like me, and want to be with me, and I saw it as a way to prove myself to him.”

When McDermott went into school the next day, she noticed “kids sniggering in the corner with phones in their hands, looking at me”.

Her picture had been sent around the school, and was quickly spread to neighbouring schools, with even her 11-year-old brother receiving it.

The 24-year-old said girls shouted insults at her in the street, and the police spoke to her about the fact that she had created child pornography.

The boy who sent her image without her permission (something which is now a criminal offence under anti-revenge-porn laws), on the other hand, got off “scot-free”.

In 2018, a 21-year-old McDermott went on Love Island after being dumped by the man she was dating.

The star had sent intimate images to this “trusted” partner and, when she left the Love Island villa, she found out her images had gone viral.

“I [had] felt safe that second time,” she said of sharing the pictures with her former partner. “I trusted the guy. He was an experienced professional and I just didn’t believe it would happen to me again.”

This time, though, the narrative around revenge porn had changed and McDermott recalls being referred to as a victim in the press “for the first time”.

But the star still suffered feelings of shame and humiliation, especially when she had to talk to her parents about what had happened. “I just wanted to die,” she said.

In her upcoming BBC documentary Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn, the star will discuss sexting and her experiences of revenge porn but she has emphasised that she doesn’t want to “shame anybody” for sending nude pictures.