Over the weekend Bella Thorne posted some nude photos of herself to Twitter after alleging a man was threatening to leak them. “I can sleep tonight better knowing I took my power back. U can’t control my life, u never will,” she tweeted alongside the pics.
The whole situation became a talking point on Monday’s episode of The View—and Thorne has now responded to comments made by cohost Whoopi Goldberg. During the episode, per People, cohost Sunny Hostin was defending Thorne. “It just saddens me that these kids have to go through this,” she said. “For someone to extort her or threaten her with posting these pictures, it’s terrible.”
Goldberg had a different take, though. “If you’re famous, I don’t care how old you are, you don’t take nude pictures of yourself,” she said. “Once you take that picture, it goes into the cloud, and it’s available to any hacker who wants it. And if you don’t know that in 2019 that this is an issue, I’m sorry. You don’t get to do that.”
Bella Thorne took to Instagram and posted a series of responses to Goldberg’s criticism. “Dear Whoopi, I have loved u for so long but honestly I’m so displeased and saddened by your response to my leak. Blaming girls for taking the photo in the first place? Is sick and honestly disgusting,” she wrote in a screenshot from the Notes app. “So what a girl can’t send her boyfriend that she misses photos of her that are sexy? Things he’s already seen? I as a woman should be so scared walking around my home, being on my phone, doing anything?”
“Is that what u want our women to be like? Scared of the masses for their sexuality?? Is that what u want? I don’t. I’m offended for anyone out there who has ever taken a sexy photo. I am offended for Jennifer Lawrence who feels publicly raped,” she continued. “I am offended for every person who has committed suicide for someone leaking their nudes. Ur view on this matter is honestly awful and I hope u change ur mind set as u are on a show talking to young girls.”
Thorne then went on to post a series of videos in which she was visibly emotional. “I’m not going to lie: I want to say I feel pretty disgusting. I feel pretty disgusting,” she said. “Whoopi, now that everyone’s seen my shit, I hope you’re so fucking happy…. I can only imagine all the kids who have their shit released and then they commit suicide. You’re so crazy for thinking such terrible things on such an awful situation.”
“Shame on you, Whoopi,” she continued. “Shame on you for putting that public opinion out there like that for every young girl to think that they’re disgusting for even taking a photo like that. Shame on you.” Thorne says that she was supposed to appear on The View, but is now canceling her appearance because she doesn’t want to be “beaten down by older women.”
Later, Throne posted several screenshots of encouraging messages she’d received from celebs such as Lucy Hale and Dove Cameron. “Good for you, baby girl. I’m so proud of you for speaking up,” Hale wrote.
Thorne also shared that Zendaya had called her to make sure she was OK, and said the two of them had talked about slut-shaming and generational differences between women. She included a tweet that Cameron had published earlier, which read, “Where is the support for young women. I love women. Everyone should love women. Don’t be an asshole! Sexuality is part of being HUMAN. But judgment and objectification is not. ugh, I can’t handle to ugly. @WhoopiGoldberg please, be better. I don’t even have any kind words for you.”