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Halsey says a music manager looked through her nude photos without permission
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Halsey says a music manager looked through her nude photos without permission

Halsey opens up about a “demoralizing” moment when someone in the industry violated her privacy.

While appearing on the October 30 episode of the Call her daddy podcast, the singer-songwriter, 30, revealed they caught a “powerful” music manager going through nude photos of her – and possibly sending himself – that were on her phone.

Halsey brought up 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.

“A few years ago I had a very strange situation,” Halsey began. “I mean, it’s been quite a long time, but I was away and I was with this director, like this really powerful director who works in music in some capacity.”

At that time, The great imitator The artist — who uses they/them pronouns — had been “hanging out” and “working” with the executive, and was accompanied by her two “older” male managers, so she felt “like everything was really fine,” explained them out.

“It was very festive and there was a lot of talk about the industry. I didn’t think it was strange at all,” they said. “I never felt unsafe or anything.”

During the night out, the unnamed director asked Halsey to send a photo of himself and the “Closer” singer to his niece, so she took out her phone and gave it to him, the musician recalled.

“I took a selfie of the two of us and I handed him my phone and I was like, ‘Text it to yourself.’ I have to pee.” And then I went to the bathroom and when I came back he handed me my phone like this,” Halsey told Cooper as he quickly put down an imaginary phone without showing the screen.

“And I saw him scrolling through my nudes on my phone,” they explained.

After sitting down, Halsey said she “didn’t even know what to do,” and began to wonder if it had really happened. “I was just frozen,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘Did I just imagine that? Was that an accident? Did the phone scroll up? What the hell happened?’”

Halsey in Las Vegas in September 2024.

David Becker/Getty


“And then I thought, ‘Did he send them to himself and then delete the messages? 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 a situation where I have so much power,” they said. “I have a bodyguard and I have, you know, all the influence in the world and I’m in this exclusive space in this VIP, I’ve reached the ranks of, ‘Oh, I’m protected or whatever.’ And then this invasive thing just happens on a whim.

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It made her feel like she had “gone backwards,” the star explained. “I went, ‘Yeah, I’m like f—ing hot s— and I’m one of the big players.’ And then I sat down.”

“And when that happened, at that moment I thought, ‘You’re nothing. You are nothing. You will always be nothing. You’re still just that damn girl that gets taken advantage of, or like men talk about you behind your back, or you’re some kind of collateral,'” she continued. “I thought, ‘You’re nothing.’ It was so demoralizing.”

“So many worse things have happened to me than that,” Halsey added, “but that one stood out for some reason because it was so casual.”