Perthshire golf star Carly Booth has opened up about her pain when personal images of her were leaked on to the internet.
The 26-year-old Comrie native, who also revealed she’d had a stalker, had her iCloud hacked last year.
Speaking on the latest episode of the BBC’s The Cut podcast, she also revealed that jealous partners of men who had the pictures would message her threats.
She said: “That was obviously horrifying, to be honest, because personal pictures to past boyfriends and whatever have now been all over the internet. It felt like something very personal. It was a very horrible feeling and it took it’s toll on me over the last year.
“I would get people sending my own pictures to me. It went on for a long time and then it kind of died down and it went back out again.”
Carly continued: “I have had messages from girlfriends or wives of men that have seen my pictures on their phone and they have then messaged me threatening me for having an affair with her other half and I have no idea who their other half is.”
Carly, who has won twice on the Ladies European Tour, also revealed she had experienced people contacting her through social media pretending to be celebrities.
She first became aware of the issue when someone claiming to be boxer Anthony Joshua messaged her. She said: “I was curious because obviously Anthony Joshua is a very well respected athlete and someone I look up to, hence my attraction towards speaking to this person.
“I soon figured that out but obviously that person has my number now. Whether it is the same person doing it, there’s been texts from people pretending to be Simon Cowell or Floyd Mayweather or just other athletes or celebrities so it’s kind of an ongoing thing.
“I kind of know straight away to just block the number.”
Along with her golf, Carly has become a social media sensation over the past few years. She has nearly 50,000 followers on Twitter and 118,000 on Instagram.
During the interview, Carly admitted she had felt the need to delete many pictures from her social media – and she called for more action to protect young women on social media from trolls and abuse.
She said: “I used to take it really personally when I kind of really started out on social media.
“I hated seeing anything negative or anything that wasn’t in a positive light, so it did affect me quite a lot.
“I think I’ve learned as time has gone on to just ignore it and, for me, if I have anyone that’s mean or very negative towards me and say horrible things, I tend to just block them.”
She added: “I do think there should be more ways to help protect us.”
Go to www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06prym3 to hear Carly’s full interview.
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