Tiwa Savage, Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey, and other celebrities have been victims of blackmail over leaked intimate videos, learn about them here …
While celebrities enjoy love and attention as perks of being famous, it doesn’t alienate them from being victims of malicious intent like blackmail or extortion.
This may seem unreal, or like a scene from a movie, but blackmailing and extortion is a pretty common thing amongst celebrities. While some have refused to give in and fight back, others gave in, and it became a series of unending extortion.
Let’s learn about Tiwa Savage and others who were blackmailed.
Tiwa Savage
In a recent interview with American OAP Angie Martinez of Power 105.1, which was released in the early hours of Friday, 8 October 2021, Tiwa Savage revealed that she is currently being blackmailed over a leaked intimate video.
According to the sonorous singer, the clip features her and her current lover. Speaking about the situation, Tiwa said that her lover is as upset with the development as she is.
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She said, “Yesterday, I was leaving a radio station and I was in my car when my road manager sent me a message. She said I should check my phone. I checked it and there was a video, and I was just like, ‘Wow!’
“I asked him where he got it from and he said he received it about 20 minutes earlier. The video was sent to him and it is a tape of me and the person I am dating right now.
“The first thing I did after I got off the phone was that I sent it to my manager and asked what we should do. The person is asking for money now. The person I am dating is going crazy too. My manager asked how much the person is asking for.“
See Also: Tiwa Savage alleged to be having an affair with Access Bank CEO.
The singer further added that she has decided not to pay those blackmailing her for ‘doing something natural’. “[…] two months from now, three months down the line or even two years later, you are going to come back again. Who knows, if I send the money, the person will probably release it,” Savage said.
Kanye West
American rapper Kanye West was blackmailed and extorted, but the saddest thing was that it was a member of his own family taking him for the ride.
In 2016, after releasing his seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo, fans were left wondering if the last line in the song “Real Friends” was based on something that had happened in his real life.
West rapped:
“I had a cousin that stole my laptop …paid that … 250 thousand just to get it from him.”
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Lawrence Franklin, who is also a cousin of Kanye West, revealed that the incident played out exactly how it’s described — someone in their family extorted the star for a quarter of a million dollars.
He made the revelation to DailyMail in December 2016. According to Lawrence Franklin, what happened was that the unnamed cousin came into possession of a laptop that had been gifted to another family member by the rapper. However, unknown to the rapper, there was footage of him ‘in clear view’ being intimate with a ‘fair-skinned Black woman’ on said laptop.
He said, “[the cousin] and his attorney went after Kanye, and to show that they meant business, they leaked a little information publicly to let it be known they indeed had the footage.”
Mariah Carey
In 2019, American singer Mariah Carey had her trust betrayed by her executive assistant Lianna Azarian (real name Shakhnazarian), who took secret videos of her in private moments.
The Grammy Award-winning singer filed a lawsuit against the assistant, which alleged that Shakhnazarian secretly filmed her without her knowledge or permission. In the complaint, she added that the footage, if revealed, would be personally embarrassing and professionally damaging to her.
Also read: Mariah Carey reveals only one condition for ‘explosive situation’ with Jay-Z.
The lawsuit also stated in part, “confronted with the fact that she recorded Mariah without her knowledge or consent, Arzarian did not apologize. Instead, Azarian threatened to release the videos, and other sensitive, private information, unless Mariah provided her $8 million. This is blackmail.”
Azarian, however, filed a countersuit the next day, accusing Mariah of wrongful termination and even battery. The case was later settled in July 2021. Neither party revealed the result of the settlement.
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons may have had several notorious escapades, but there was one encounter that came back to haunt him on numerous occasions. In 2008, a clip that showed Simmons with an Austrian model found its way online.
Surprisingly, Simmons not only confirmed that it was indeed him in the video, but he also revealed that the people who released it (whom he refers to as an “entity”) had already tried to blackmail him with it on numerous occasions.
See more: OnlyFans ban: see what it means and top 10 highest earners.
Because he refused to hand over any money, they made the footage available for purchase online. He said in a statement posted to his official website (via Digital Spy); “You should know for the record, the garbage was recorded without my knowledge and is a page from my past.
“This is not the first time the entity has tried to blackmail and extort us. We have always refused, and we will continue to refuse.” The timing of the video’s release was certainly no coincidence as Simmons and his family were starring in the A&E reality show at the time.
Oprah
Oprah has also had her share of experiences with blackmailers. A man attempted to extort $1.5 million from her as he threatened to leak phone calls between him and an employee of Oprah’s — in which the employee said awful and embarrassing things about her, hoping to ruin her reputation.
See also: Behind palace doors: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry bare it all with Oprah.
The tapes never got to see the light of day as he was forced to hand over the tapes to federal prosecutors since they were recorded illegally. Also, he landed himself in jail for attempted extortion.
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