Zara McDermott has revealed she contemplated suicide after becoming a victim of revenge porn.
The Made In Chelsea star recalled being suspended from school and branded a “slut”, after a naked picture she sent to a classmate at 14 was shared around the school.
Speaking to The Times, the 24-year-old said: “People don’t realise when something like this happens, it affects the whole family.”
“My teachers just washed their hands of me. Drilling it into me, constantly blaming me. Do you know what that does to a young girl?”
The former Love Island star admitted she felt pressured into sending the photo, after her classmate told her: “‘It will make me like you more.'”
“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.”
Zara recalled seeing “kids sniggering in the corner with phones in their hands” the following day, and revealed that while she was suspended, the boy who sent the photo got away with it “scot-free”.
The reality star admitted she experienced suicidal thoughts after the ordeal, adding: “I never want to go to that place again.”
In 2018, Zara became a victim of revenge porn for a second time, after explicit photos of her circulated on social media following her stint on Love Island.
“Notably, when I came out of Love Island, and came out to images of me, what felt like, circulating around the whole world,” she recalled.
“It was one of the hardest things I went through in my whole life.”
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Zara will open up about her experience in her upcoming BBC Three documentary Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn, which airs on February 23.
She said she doesn’t want to “shame anybody” for sending nude pictures, explaining: “I know what it’s like to be a teenager. I remember. Tell me to do one thing and I’ll do the opposite.”
“I don’t want to be that person wagging her finger because I don’t think that person gets listened to. But sharing my story and what I have had to go through, I hope it will be enough to make people think twice.”
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