When you are a part of the entertainment industry, you are probably going to be a part of scandals and controversies, whether you like it or not. Actress and singer Melissa Benoist, who is popularly known for her roles in Glee and Supergirl, too was a victim of a heavy scandal.
Melissa Benoist
Owing to a celebrity hacking scandal, Melissa Benoist found herself in a bit of a predicament when her explicit photos were leaked on the Internet. Melissa Benoist was only one of the many celebrities who found themselves in the same situation, having fallen victim to “The Fappening.” However, it’s good to know that she wasn’t one to sit quietly after the event as she took to Twitter to fire back.
Melissa Benoist Speaks Out About the Scandal
Melissa Benoist and Becca Tobin
Back in 2014, an event called The Fappening or Celebgate happened. The weirdly termed event refers to when over a hundred celebrities were subjected to their nudes getting leaked on the Internet. Other than Melissa Benoist, hugely popular celebrities like Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, and Ariana Grande had also fallen victim to the ordeal.
While Benoist’s photos weren’t made public in the initial leak, they were available to view on the Internet not long after. Along with Benoist, her Glee co-star Becca Tobin’s nudes were also leaked during The Fappening. Both the actresses took to Twitter to clap back at the event. While the Supergirl actress had more of a serious response, Tobin decided to deal with things through a comedic approach. Tobin joked, “Merry XXXmas!” as her leaked photos involved her decorating a Christmas tree.
Benoist tweeted, “Exactly my thoughts @sallykohn…incivility should not be supported. Please watch…” linking a Ted Talk of Sally Kohn talking about clickbait. However, Benoist is no longer on Twitter. Even though the unfortunate incident happened almost a decade ago, we praise Benoist for taking a stand against it and educating people through her tweet at the same time.
What Exactly was The Fappening?
Jennifer Lawrence
In 2014, hundreds of explicit photos of well-known celebrities found their way to the Internet for everyone to see. The one responsible for the scandal, Ryan Collins, hacked into the iCloud accounts of his targeted celebrities through e-mails sent to them. Once in, there was no stopping Collins from downloading the private photos and leaking them online. The photos were shared through the now-shut-down 4chan as well as Reddit.
Collins pleaded guilty to the count of “unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.” Two years later, he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail on the basis of hacking over six hundred iCloud accounts.
Lawrence also spoke up about the scandal to Variety where she stated that she was afraid and didn’t know how the whole thing would affect her career. She continued that she wanted to initially release a public statement apologizing. However, she then realized that she had nothing to apologize for and added that she was in a loving relationship during the time.
“…but every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for. I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at p*rn or he’s going to look at you.”
Even though The Fappening happened all the way back in 2014, it’s safe to say that it was one of the worst scandals in the entertainment industry. All we have to say is, take Benoist’s advice and do not click on shady links!
