Last summer, nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and dozens of other female celebrities were stolen and leaked online in an event that came to be known in certain online circles as “The Fappening.”
Humorous name aside, the hack was a terrifying violation of privacy for the women involved and one of the most brazen cyber crimes in recent memory.
Unfortunately, even when they’re stolen, nude photos of Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence will always find an audience online, and while those A-listers were probably the scandal’s highest profile victims, many other actresses, models and singers were affected as well.
Most estimates put the number of victims between 80 and 100, and now a recently unsealed search warrant and affidavit related to the ongoing federal investigation into the leak has (possibly) identified several more famous victims.
The documents (used to secure the rights to search the home of a Chicago man suspected of being involved in the hack) only name the victims by initials, but the folks over at Gawker have made some pretty solid guesses as to whom the letters might represent.
A portion of the warrant lists some of the victims as “A.S., C.H., H.S., J.M., O.W., A.K., E.B., and A.H.”
The consensus is that the initials refer to Abigail Spencer, Christina Hendricks, Hope Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Olivia Wilde, Emily Browning and Amber Heard.
Hendricks and Wilde were not previously known to have been affected by the scandal. It was rumored that explicit photos of Heard had been stolen, but they were never widely circulated.
The documents released today also include a description of a police interview with “J.L.” (presumably Jennifer Lawrence) during which investigators had to take a break because the Lawrence was “having an anxiety attack and was visibly shaken.”
It’s a sad reminder of just how profound of an impact the widespread theft had upon its many victims.
