Bella Thorne Reflects on Leaking Her Own Nudes After 'Threatening' Text Messages From Hacker: 'My Power Was Taken From Me'

Bella Thorne got candid about leaking her own nude photos after threats from a hacker.

The Shake It Up alum spoke about the 2019 incident with Alex Cooper on the August 5 episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast.

The actress and singer recalled receiving an ominous text while she was doing her book tour for The Life of a Wannabe Mogul, followed by lewd images of herself that she had not posted publicly.

"It started off with a text like, 'Oh, hi, kitty.'... I was just like, 'What is this? Did a fan get my number?,'" she remembered. "And then again and again, and then a photo of me that I had never posted and my brain, just like chills."

All the while, Thorne was promoting a book discussing "dark s---" in her past, trying to get her audience to understand her as more than just the Disney Channel child star they knew.

"I was not properly expressing myself, and I felt that kind of one of my last things that I had to do before kind of just giving up on myself was write this book, and then maybe people read it, and they understand me a little bit more," she explained.

The anonymous hacker continued sending her pictures until he got her to engage in text messages with him.

"So I write this book, and while I'm doing this press tour talking about molestation and dark s---, this man is threatening me and won't stop," Thorne added.

The hacker seemed to not only want money from Thorne, but also more provocative photos of her. He even sent nudes of her friends just to show "how powerful" he was.

She showed the terrifying messages to her manager and vented that her "power was taken" from her once again, with no idea how to move forward.

"It felt like being re-raped and also feeling this, like everything will end if he does this," Thorne explained. "Everything will end for you. All the s--- that you've been through, everything you've done to get to this point's all going to be blown up, and just, it's gone if he does this."

She remembered her manager being in total support of her choice to release the images herself before anyone else could take the opportunity from her.

"I don't think anyone, any agent or manager would've been like, 'Yeah. All right. You wanna do that because you think it'll make you feel better? Sure. Release your own nudes,'" she pointed out. "And he was like, 'Honestly, Bella? What he's writing you is f----- up with what you've been through.'"

"This is your only way. I don't have another way for you. I don't have another option," the star recalled him saying.

The Duff actress admitted that she felt like her life and career were over either way, so it may as well have been on her terms.

"I was like, 'Well, at the end of the day, if I'm gonna lose my whole career and everything I've worked for being 20 at that time and working since I was eight, I'm gonna just say f--- it all, and I'm never gonna work again, and my life's over because this man's gonna do this, so I'll just do it,'" she said.

At the time, Thorne was getting criticism for appearing "too sexual," which she said played a role in her decision as well.

"I guess if you think about it, it's kind of the way I approach life. You wanna say she's so sexual? Okay, so then I'll be sexual," she joked. "You wanna do this to me? You wanna take this from me? So I'm gonna take it and sell it instead."

The "TTYLXOX" singer tweeted a photo of her nude pictures on June 15, 2019, along with a lengthy message about the incident, noting that she had contacted the FBI.

"U DON'T GET TO TAKE YET ANOTHER THING FROM ME," Thorne proclaimed, later adding, "I can sleep tonight better knowing I took my power back. U can't control my life, u never will."