TikTok star Chris Olsen is setting the record straight on his photo scandal.
Olsen, 26, opened up about the experience on the Wednesday, September 11, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, noting that he began doing photo shoots after losing weight following a stint in rehab. “I was posting a lot of body pics, and photographers would reach out, and be like, ‘Can we work together? And we’ll just mutually post each other, like, we’re not paying each other,’ or something like that,” he explained. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. Great.’ And the first few that I did were just that.”
However, one photographer asked him to sign a release before beginning their photo shoot, “He was like, ‘Oh, in order for us to start, we have to do that.’ I was like, ‘I don’t remember doing that with anyone.’ And he was like, ‘You can read it if you want, but most people don’t,’” Olsen said. Not wanting to tell the older man no, Olsen — who was 19 at the time — signed the document.
“We’re taking photos, and it gets to the point where he’s asking a little bit more than I had been comfortable with and that I had wanted to do,” he shared. “But again, what I learned over those past few years is the best thing you can do is not feel too loudly about something. So, just quietly do what is gonna cause the least noise.”
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About a month later, Olsen received a DM from someone complimenting him on one of his explicit photos from the shoot. “I asked the photographer, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s on one of my sites.’ And I was like, ‘OK. Would you mind taking that down? I didn’t know you were gonna put that up there. I don’t feel comfortable,’” Olsen told host Alex Cooper. “And he was like, ‘Well, you signed the release for it. I can take it down, I guess.’ He essentially just made me feel like, ‘I’ll do you the favor.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ I ended up apologizing.”
Olsen decided to push it under the rug at the time, but more of his pics from the shoot began to circulate as he gained a larger social media following. Olsen noted that he once stumbled upon an X page that shared many of the pics and was blocked by the user after asking him to take them down.
“He tweets, ‘I’m gonna take Chris’ photos down in 30 minutes. Download them now,’” Olsen stated. “I was like, ‘It’s over.’”
The backlash Olsen received from fans about his photos, in addition to increasing negative social media comments, led him to speak out about the leak via TikTok last month.
“The violation is there. I feel violated. It’s out. How much worse can it get by me telling you how this makes me feel now?” he said on Wednesday’s podcast. “I think there’s too much of this idea that we’re supposed to remain unfazed and be, like, ‘that bitch’ and, like, ‘You guys can’t touch me. I’m the one up here. I’m the one in L.A.’ It’s like, ‘No. I actually don’t even feel like that.’ As I’ve said, I feel like that 6-year-old or the 12-year-old or the 15-year-old that everyone is laughing at right now.”
He added: “I know there’s accountability to take for me, and that’s why I’m saying now I would just like you guys to not seek out those photos or consume them. I know they’re out there. I know a lot of it is my doing and I know I can take accountability for the fact that they’re out there, even if it feels a little invasive and abusive that they’re out there. I’ll own 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 im gonna post about this for now, but im 19 in this pic,” he wrote alongside a shirtless beach photo and a lengthy statement. “I was sober, life was supposed to be better, and i was still making mistakes. but i forgive him & i hope you can too.”
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