Jennifer Lawrence on hacked photos: ‘It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime’

Jennifer Lawrence was among a dozen celebrities whose privacy was violated. Danny Moloshok / Reuters

The Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has spoken publicly for the first time about the theft of nude photos of her and other celebrities by hackers who posted them online, angrily slamming the leak as a “sex crime”.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said people who chose to search for and look at the photos stolen were guilty of "perpetuating a sexual offence".

Lawrence was one of dozens of celebrities whose intimate photos were stolen from Apple’s iCloud online storage system and posted on August 31. She said she felt violated and was afraid how the hacked photographs would affect her career.

“It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime,” she said. “It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed and we need to change.

“That’s why these websites are responsible. Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside.”

As for those who went looking for the photos on the internet, she said: “Anybody who looked at those pictures, you’re perpetuating a sexual offence. You should cower with shame.”

She added: “Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this.

“It’s my body and it should be my choice and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world.”

The 24-year-old said the photos had been taken for her former boyfriend of four years, the British actor Nicholas Hoult, while they were in a long-distance relationship, and that the hardest phone call she had to make was to her father, telling him that the photos had been stolen and posted on the web.

She considered writing a statement at the time it happened, but said: “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.”

Apple has acknowledged that computer hackers targeted and then broke into the accounts of Lawrence and several other stars. The FBI is investigating the incident.

The company this month announced plans to tighten its online security and also urged users to use stronger passwords and a two-step authentication feature.

More than a dozen Hollywood celebrities have threatened to sue Google for failing to crack down on the leaks.

The November issue of Vanity Fair goes on sale on October 14.