Comedian and writer Whitney Cummings was the victim of an extortion attempt, she revealed on social media. Online users took a screengrab of an old video that was briefly posted to her Instagram story earlier this year which showed the former Roseanne showrunner’s nipple.
The extorters allegedly told Cummings they would release the photo if she did not send them money.
Well, Cummings took power into her own hands and released the photo herself while detailing the situation in a serious of tweets on social media.
“In April I accidentally posted an insta story that showed nipple. Once I realized, I deleted. The people who took screen grabs are trying to get money from me, some said they have offers to sell them, some are asking for money to not post the photo,” Cummings revealed on social media before revealing the photo herself. “They all must think I’m way more famous than I am, but they also must think I’m way more easily intimidated than I am. If anyone is gonna make money or likes off my nipple, it’s gonna be me. So here it all is, you foolish dorks.”
After her initial comments and revealing the photo herself, Cummings revealed that she continued to be threatened by people who claim to have access to her iCloud.
“When a woman in the public eye is extorted, we have to spend time, money and energy dealing with it, hiring lawyers and security experts, and living with a pit in our stomach about when and how we will be humiliated. Y’all can have my nipple, but not my time or money anymore,” she continued.
“I’m not posting the names of the people trying to extort me because some of them might be dumb kids. I wouldn’t want the stupid ideas I had when I was a teenager to follow me around forever or else every time someone Googled me, they’d see me shoplifting a NO FEAR t-shirt. Now I’m getting threatened with ‘we have access to your iCloud.’ I’ll be honest, I stand by most of my nudes. Frankly I’m way more embarrassed by all the inspirational quotes I’ve screen grabbed.”
Once people caught wind of the news, there was plenty of support for Cummings online.
Among those who voiced their support was her good friend and fellow comedian Chris D’Elia, who shared his own “embarrassing” photo.
Comedia Bert Kreischer also joined in, although he shared a photo of his genitals that led to the “#IStandWithWhitney” hashtag trending on Twitter. We won’t be showing that photo, though.