$72K was offered for my phantom sex tape - Lydia Forson

Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson has revealed someone offered to pay $72,000 for her non-existent sex tape.

In a write up on her blog, titled ‘Sex Scandals, My Story’, Ms Forson narrated her ordeal when a newspaper broke the news of her alleged leaked sex tape some years back.

According to her, she did not take the news seriously assuming, the hoax will die in the shortest time, but it did not.

“For several weeks the story spread like wild fire and this started a bidding war with someone even offering to pay $72,000 for the sex tape. …I continued to go about my work as usual, but it became increasingly hard because everywhere I went people stared at me or pointed fingers in disgust. I was the immoral girl who had a dirty sex video in circulation”, she wrote.

Ms Forson who recently condemned the leakage of a sex tape alleged to belong to wife of Black Stars player Afriyie Acquah, Amanda, advised people who circulate other peoples leaked videos to desist from the act.

“We all have secrets, and, some, no matter how deeply we think we’ve buried them, will come out one day. So, think about that each time you hit send to your friend or make fun of someone in this situation. It could be you in the hot seat next time”, she wrote.

Read her full story and experience below:

Brace yourself; this is a long one…

You will notice that I go hard on anything related to a leaked sex video or naked picture in circulation. Because I know all too well the pain and humiliation it can cause.

Something happened to me several years ago, and although some of you may remember, for a lot of you this maybe a first.

For years I deliberately avoided talking about this because I didn’t want to give it anymore power over me and I also hoped this would make it go away. Which it did.

Many years ago a very popular newspaper decided to publish a story about an alleged sex scandal involving 3 Ghanaian Actresses. Although the names were left out, the description pointed at 3 women everyone could easily point out, and I was included.

I was relatively new in the industry and was still trying to find my bearings, so this was very new to me. At first I thought it was funny, I knew I didn’t have any sex tape out there and was sure this hoax would be over soon.

But it was only the beginning.

For several weeks the story spread like wild fire and this started a bidding war with someone even offering to pay $72,000 for the sex tape.

I was still in denial about this because I was sure it was just a hoax that would blow over. Later the stories began to change about the circumstances surrounding the tape, who the man was and if the actresses in question were aware they were being recorded.

That sent me panicking, what if I’d gone to a party and been drugged? Or maybe an ex had done this when I wasn’t aware. They reported with some kind of confidence that was sure to make you believe it was true.

The hardest thing was having to explain to my mother that it was me, how do you even start a conversation like that with your mother.

But I did, and even though she believed me, or, at least, said she did, I knew it wouldn’t change the fear she felt for me and the countless phone calls she would receive because of this.

I continued to go about my work as usual but it became increasingly hard because everywhere I went people stared at me or pointed fingers in disgust. I was the immoral girl who had a dirty sex video in circulation.

Surprisingly none of these people had seen this video; no one for that matter had seen it. All effort to find out if it existed proved futile with some even going as far as to say they were hiding it for security reasons because they wanted to wait before releasing it.

I knew there was something fishy going on but couldn’t quite figure it out.

Because it didn’t make any sense to me that a video that was so popular hadn’t been seen by anyone, not a single soul.

That, however didn’t stop people from believing it existed, with some even making up lies of seeing it.

The last straw for me was when I lost an endorsement deal because the computer any didn’t want to associate with my brand anymore, they didn’t care if it was true or not they just didn’t want to be connected in any way to someone who the public had such a perception of.

I remember walking to my house that day, seeing my mother and breaking down in tears for the first time.

I just cried for several minutes and without saying a word my mother knew. I was weak, depressed and defeated; I just wanted to disappear.

I was too scared to go out, and couldn’t take the judgmental looks anymore; I shut myself from the world and decided I’d had it in the industry. I wanted out; I didn’t want to be part of such a cruel culture especially one that didn’t care enough about my innocence.

And unfortunately it’s one that continues to exists even today, where someone leaks a person’s video and the person who committed the diabolical act is made a hero of some sort, the one to spread the good news, the one to give evidence that yes, indeed this person is bad.

I don’t understand why, even the media, does nothing to stop this but rather help put more fuel to the already flaming story.

Notice how, when iCloud was hacked and several nude pictures were leaked majority of the main stream media like CNN, BBC, Aljazeera refuse to be a part of it and rather went after the hacker. Even bloggers refused to publish these pictures on ethics and also went after the hacker; save for a few individuals with black sites that released these pictures it became very hard for anyone to get hold of it.

Here on the other hand, it’s the media in most cases who even share links to the leaked videos, further enabling the agenda of the person behind the release.

Back to my story; so this went on for weeks on end and I turned down several movies because of it; I wasn’t ready to face the world again.

Several years down the line, after I’d picked myself back up again and regained some normalcy to my life, it came out that it really was a HOAX, occastrated by an editor and an entertainment manager just to create chaos.

And to my surprise when they did admit it, didn’t get as much attention as the hoax did.

The lives that had been ruined and the pain people had been put through could not be undone, and we didn’t get as much as a sorry.

How a person could do this just for sport was beyond me, but he couldn’t have gotten away with it had we not been such a people so eager for a person’s down fall or for bad news.

That wasn’t the first and was definitely not going to be my last as it turned out.

Only last year, a blog mischievously released a picture claiming to be of a Ghanaian actress, the description they gave matched no other than me.

And I’m guessing they picked a few tricks from what happened years ago, because they were sure they could get away with it by not mentioning the name of the alleged actress in question.

They stupidly forgot that the picture was of a well-known porn star who was all over the internet. So why deliberately say it’s of a Ghanaian actress? Again because they know their audience and their thirst for things like this.

So now, after the psychological trauma of having a false story like that in circulation and how much I lost because of it, you can only imagine what will happen to someone who actually has a naked picture or video out there.

This thing will be there for the rest of his/her life, and nothing she will do can erase it.

There are countless incidences that have occurred over the years I can reference to, and each has had the same reaction from society. Even when some of these videos clearly indicate the victims have been drugged and are unaware we continue to share and have a laugh.

Some years back a guy sent me a naked picture of a lady I had issues with, hoping to give me leverage over her. I deleted it immediately and cussed him out, because I didn’t get why I had to stoop so low to make a point.

My problems with her had nothing to do with her nakedness, and this picture was sent to him because she trusted him and did it knowing it was for a man she loved. So why break that trust in the name of “getting back at her”? However I wondered if the same would have been done for me were the roles switched, and the answer would probably be no.

Again it’s easy to blame the victim for engaging in the act, maybe to make yourself feel better or justify your mockery. But just because someone recorded themselves doesn’t mean they wanted anyone to see it.

For some of these victims, they’ve probably seen other people’s videos before and even circulated it. But you see, you never know when it will be your turn until it is, and is why you should NEVER participate in humiliating another human being.

We all have secrets and some no matter how deeply we think we’ve buried them will come out one day. So think about that each time you hit send to your friend or make fun of someone in this situation. It could be you in the hot seat next time

Yes I can tell you to be careful or never send naked pictures to even your partner and even go as far as to say don’t take them, but that’s almost like telling people there’s HIV , road accidents, plane crashes, etc. so they shouldn’t have sex or drive or fly?

We can’t stop people from living, because of all the risks involved.

So this isn’t the first nor is it the last something like this will happen. It’s our reaction that should change, remember it’s not about how we act, it’s how we respond that matters.

To anyone who’s been through this or is going through this, remember that what doesn’t kill you definitely makes you stronger. Heck look at me, you can’t tell me NOTHING!