I had to tell my mum and dad about leaked sex tape – the shame will never go away, says Love Island’s Georgia Harrison
REALITY TV star Georgia Harrison says the shame of telling her parents about her leaked sex tape will stay with her for ever.
The former Towie and Love Island star was secretly filmed having sex with low-life Stephen Bear in 2020.
Bear, 32, made £40,000 out of putting the video on X-rated website OnlyFans and now faces jail after being found guilty this week of voyeurism and disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.
But Georgia says the pain his actions caused her family can never be undone.
In her only newspaper interview, Georgia, 28, says: “I was crippled by shame and embarrassment when the video was leaked. I was used in such a terrible way. It decimated my self-worth and my ability to trust.
“When I first realised the video was out there for everyone to see, my first thought was, ‘How am I going to tell my dad?’.
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“Imagine how embarrassing it is for my dad knowing that all of his friends are aware that there is this really explicit video of his daughter out there. A boy even accidentally sent it to my uncle without realising we were related.
“I have little brothers and sisters who were all in school at the time. “They have had to deal with people bringing it up with them, calling me names. People were trying to forward it on social media to them. It has really affected their lives as well — it wasn’t just mine that was ruined.”
Georgia is now urging the Government to take action against social media companies who allow such content to be shared.
She said: “I want to give a message to the UK government that I am following all of the work they are doing with the online safety Bill.
“I believe now more than ever that social media companies need to be doing more to protect their users online and in the event that they fail to do so they absolutely need to be held accountable for their mistakes.”
Bear, of Walthamstow, East London, worked as a roofer before finding fame on reality TV shows including Ex on the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother.
In 2019, the pair appeared together on MTV’s The Challenge: War of the Worlds, inset right. Bear was friends with Georgia and the pair had previously had consensual sex.
But he secretly filmed himself having sex with her in the garden at his home using CCTV.
The clip was then shared worldwide and in December 2020, Georgia went online to ask her followers to help her find the cause of the leak.
She called police who removed the footage and started working on a case against Bear. Georgia, who was living in Dubai at the time, said: “Everyone I knew was talking about it. I walked into the gym and it fell silent.
“I asked who had seen it and all of these people put up their hands. By this time I realised it was out of my control and there was no way I could stop this video from spreading.
“That is when I spoke out on Instagram and called the police. Everyone had seen it, my family, my friends, people I had worked with. Total strangers around the world had seen this video of me.
“I was trying to live a normal life and go out but I would end up sobbing myself to sleep at night.”
Georgia believes the stress led to her developing life-threatening sepsis.
She said: “I was alone in Dubai at the time and I could not see my family because of the pandemic.
“I fell ill through the stress. I was locking myself away and barely sleeping. In the end a cyst on my ovary burst and it became infected. That infection spread to my bladder, liver and pelvis and my mum begged me to go to hospital. When I arrived they told me that if I had waited one more night to get help I would have died.
“Stress can cause cysts to burst and I believe the effect this had on me led to me almost losing my life.”
At the same time Georgia was in hospital, Bear was also in Dubai on holiday. She said: “It was awful for my family knowing I was dangerously ill in hospital and he was drinking cocktails on the beach just miles away from me. That was so painful for them.”
'Revenge porn is a crime'
Georgia praised the swift actions of the police who helped her to bring Bear to justice. But she said her work and relationships have all been badly affected by the video.
Influencer Georgia said: “The impact the video had both professionally and personally was so damaging. I was dropped by so many brands who didn’t want to work with me because of it.
“My earnings dropped drastically and I was forced to move back in with my mum. Financially, it has been really tough.
“In terms of relationships, for the first year and a half I found it really hard to date people I found it hard to trust anyone. I thought people looked at me and thought I was cheap.”
Georgia moved into her mother’s house in Essex when she returned from Dubai because the flat she owned was opposite Bear’s house.
She said: “I haven’t been able to go to my own flat for two years.
These videos ruin lives and the social media companies are the ones who are profiting off it. This has to change.
“The place I worked my whole life to buy. I will never feel comfortable living there again. One day I will sell it and try to move on.”
Georgia waived her anonymity and gave evidence in court against Bear from behind a screen. He drew criticism for his antics during the trial at Chelmsford crown court, including turning up every day in a Rolls-Royce and smoking a cigar.
Georgia said: “I feel he was making a complete mockery of the trial. I do not think he took any of it seriously and I do not think he even thinks what he did was a bad crime.
“He is clearly desperate for attention. He is acting like a character you would see on EastEnders.
“I don’t want young boys to look at this case and think that this is a cool thing to do. I want them to realise that if they do this, they will face justice and they will be publicly shamed.”
Georgia is now rebuilding her life and wants to help other people affected by what she has been through. She said: “Revenge porn is a crime that affects so many people.
“We are living in a time where so much of our lives and our children’s lives are spent online and it is so important that individuals are protected in the virtual world just as they are in reality.
“Social media has given us the egalitarian belief that we are all publishers but what it hasn’t done is regulate what we should responsibly publish.
“I am calling on the Government to do more to hold social media companies to account. They need to help people who fall victim to this and act quickly to help them.
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“These videos ruin lives and the social media companies are the ones who are profiting off it. This has to change.”