TikTok star Chris Olsen breaks down leaked photo scandal

TikTok star Chris Olsen clarifies his photo scandal.

Olsen, 26, opened up about his experience on the Wednesday, Sept. 11, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, mentioning that he started doing photoshoots after losing weight following a stint in rehab. “I was posting a lot of full-body photos and photographers would reach out to me and say, 'Can we work together? And we'll just post each other's photos, so no money,' or something like that,” he explained. “And I was like, 'Yeah, sure. Great.' And the first few I did were just that.”

However, a photographer asked him to sign a release before the photo shoot began. “He was like, 'Oh, we have to do this before we can start.' I said, 'I don't remember doing this with anyone.' And he was like, 'You can read it if you want, but most people don't,'” Olsen said. Not wanting to say no to the older man, Olsen – who was 19 at the time – signed the document.

“We're taking pictures and at some point he asks for a little more than I was comfortable with and what I wanted to do,” he said. “But I've learned over the last few years that it's best not to be too loud. So just quietly do what makes the least noise.”

About a month later, Olsen received a direct message from someone complimenting him on one of his revealing photos from the shoot. “I asked the photographer and he was like, 'Oh yeah, it's on one of my websites.' And I said, 'OK. Would you mind taking that down? I didn't know you were going to put that on there. I don't feel comfortable doing that,'” Olsen told the host. Alex Cooper. “And he was like, 'Well, you signed the release for it. I guess I can take it down.' He basically just made me feel like, 'I'm doing you a favor.' And I said, 'OK.' I ended up apologizing.”

Olsen decided to keep the matter under the rug at the time, but as he gained more followers on social media, more and more of his images from the shoot began to circulate. Olsen mentioned that he once came across an X page that shared many of the images and that the user blocked it after asking him to take it down.

“He tweeted, 'I'm going to delete Chris' photos in 30 minutes. Downloading them now,'” Olsen explained. “I was like, 'It's over.'”

The strong reactions Olsen received from fans to his photos, as well as increasing negative comments on social media, prompted him to speak out about the leak on TikTok last month.

“The hurt is there. I feel hurt. It's out. How much worse can it get if I tell you now how I feel about it?” he said on Wednesday's podcast. “I think there's too much of this idea that we're supposed to be unfazed and be like 'that bitch' and like, 'You can't touch me. I'm the one up here. I'm the one in LA.' It's like, 'No. Actually, I don't even feel that way.' Like I said, I feel like that 6-year-old or that 12-year-old or that 15-year-old that everyone's laughing at right now.”

He added: “I know I have to take responsibility for that, and that's why I'm saying now that I'd like to ask you not to seek out or consume those photos. I know they're out there. I know a lot of that is my doing, and I know I can take responsibility for them being out there, even if it feels a little intrusive and abusive that they're out there. I'm going to take that part. … If I didn't say 'no' then, I'm saying 'no' now.

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Olsen, who is currently opening for his friend Meghan Trainor on her Timeless Tour – subtly addressed the drama via Instagram last month. “This is the last thing I'm posting about this but I'm 19 in this picture,” he wrote alongside a shirtless beach photo and a lengthy explanation. “I was sober, life was supposed to be better, and I still made mistakes. But I forgive him and I hope you can too.”

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