Halsey opens up about the “demoralizing” moment someone in the industry invaded her privacy.
While appearing in the October 30 episode Call her dad podcast, the singer-songwriter, 30, revealed a “powerful” music executive was caught looking through — and potentially sending himself — nude photos of her that were on her phone.
Halsey mentioned the incident as she and host Alex Cooper discussed the sexual power dynamics within the entertainment industry – and the “scary” situations that can arise as a result.
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“I had a really weird situation a few years ago,” Halsey began. “I mean, I guess it was a long time ago, but I was out there and I was with this executive, like this really powerful executive who works in music in a way.”
At that time, A great imitator the artist – who uses the pronouns she/they – was “hanging out” and “working” with the CEO, and she was accompanied by her two “older” male managers, so she felt “like everything was really fine,” she explained.
“It was just a celebration and there was a lot of conversation in the industry. I didn’t feel weird about it at all,” they said. “I never felt unsafe or anything.”
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During a night out, the unnamed executive asked Halsey to send his niece a photo of him and the “Closer” singer, so she pulled out her phone and gave it to him, the musician recalled.
“I took a selfie of the two of us, and I handed it my phone and I said, ‘Send a message to yourself. I have to pee.’ And then I went to the bathroom and when I came back, he handed me the phone like this,” Halsey told Cooper, quickly putting the imaginary phone away without showing the screen.
“And I saw that he was going through my files on my phone,” they explained.
After sitting down, Halsey said she “didn’t even know what to do” and began to question whether it had really happened. “I was just frozen,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Did I just imagine it? Was it an accident? Did the phone move up? What the hell just happened?’”
Halsey in Las Vegas in September 2024.
David Becker/Getty
“And then I thought: ‘Did he send them to himself and then delete them? I don’t even know where these are now,’ she continued, explaining that the “invasive” incident took her to a dark place mentally.
“I’m in this situation where I have so much power,” they said. “I have a bodyguard and I have, you know, all the power in the world and I’m in this exclusive space in this VIP, I’ve reached the rank of like, ‘Oh, I’m protected or whatever it may be.’ And then this invasive thing just happens on a whim.”
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It made her feel like she was “regressing,” the star explained. “I went from being like, ‘Yeah, I’m like fucking hot with … and I’m one of the big players.’ And then I sat down.”
“And when that happened, in that moment, I said, ‘You’re nothing. You are nothing. You will always be nothing. You’re still just that fucking girl that’s being taken advantage of, or as men talk about you behind your back, or you’re some kind of collateral,’ she continued. “I said, ‘You’re nothing.’ It was so demoralizing.”
“I’ve had so many worse things happen to me than that,” Halsey added, “but that one stuck for some reason because it was so nonchalant.”
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Source: HIS Education