TikTok Star Chris Olsen Says He Was 19 When Nonconsensual Explicit Photos Were Taken: 'Didn’t Know How to Say No' (2024)

• In a statement posted to Instagram on Sunday, Aug, 11, TikTok star Chris Olsen said that the images, which he has previously called out as being revenge p*rn, were taken when he was 19
• Olsen said that the photos that at the time the photos were taken he "didn't know how to say 'No' "
• He also expressed that he does not want the images to circulate online anymore and "hopes that's enough"

Chris Olsenis continuing to open up about thenonconsensual sharing of his explicit photos, explaining that they were taken when he was just a teenager.
In a statement posted on Instagram and TikTok Sunday, Aug. 11, the 26-year-old TikTok star said that he “never was a p*rn star” and that he “never consensually agreed to any of these photos or videos [of himself] being released on the internet.”

Olsen's statement explained the situation in which the images were taken, saying that he was recently sober.

“When I got sober, I lost a lot of weight and started working out and started feeling good about how I looked physically for the first time in my life,” Olsen said. “I would post fitness photos on Instagram all the time and had gained a small following from that.”

Olsen explained that as his following grew, “photographers would reach out and ask to collaborate with me where I could take photos with them and tag them and it would be mutually beneficial and no money was involved.”

He revealed he mostly had a “good time” with most of the photographers and “almost always felt comfortable” shooting with them until he worked with someone who “crossed the line of what I was comfortable with.”

Olsen noted that the photographer — whom Olsen has not publicly identified — first made him sign a release for the photos before the session, which he was told was the “standard” at the time before he was made to “remove everything” for the shoot.

“Being 19 and unfamiliar with the entertainment world, I compiled without realizing what I was actually doing,” he wrote.

While he didn’t go into detail about the shoot, Olsen said that he “didn’t know how to say no" because the photographer had the "power."

"I had no idea how to stand up for myself," he added.

“I was supposed to know how to say no, how to make the right decisions… Yet here I was letting myself be violated… trying to show my discomfort, physically moving away, trying to find excuses to not spend any more time around him, but never saying ‘No.’ ”

Olsen recalled the photographer then “posted [the photos] on a platform that you had to pay for, but people screenshotted them and from there, it was over.” He explained the situation with the photographer triggered him, especially after another “SA experience” he had in high school, causing him to “regress back to unhealthy habits.”

The star explained that while he knows he has to “stand by the fact that during all of this, I never said no,” he is saying that now, “I do not want these things to circulate anymore and I hope that’s enough.”

“I'm in the process of forgiving myself and I hope you can try to forgive me too,” he concluded.

Olsen first opened up about his “revenge p*rn” experience in a TikTok posted on July 23 and revealed he is “still dealing” with the images circulating online to this day, despite his efforts to get them taken down.

“It never stopped [and] it’s nonconsensual,” he said in the video. “It’s violating. It’s fully abuse and illegal.”

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In an interview with PEOPLE on Aug. 2, Olsen revealed that he’s “almost kind of numb” to the situation now “because it seems to be happening to so many people.”

“It’s sad to me that I don’t even have that many feelings about it anymore because I’ve had to desensitize myself,” he explained.

“For a long time, I tried to avoid the negativity because I thought if I respond to it, if I play into the negativity, it makes them win,” he continued. “And so I didn't do that for the longest time, and I still felt like they were winning.”

But through this experience, Olsen shared he “received the support that I need” from his friends, family and followers, and that he “never felt better” or “happier.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.