Story By: Sara Zhivkova, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
A stunning young Italian sports presenter has spoken of her shock at having her phone hacked and being blackmailed over explicit videos.
The 29-year-old TV presenter Giulia Diletta Leotta is from the city of Catania in the southern Italian island of Sicily and began her football journalism career in 2010 when she worked for a Sicilian local network called Antenna Sicilia, then Sky Sports and finally DAZN.
Leotta recently revealed shocking details about her ordeal with blackmail in her first book “Choose to Smile”.
She writes: “After years in which silence seemed the best way to react, I decided to tell my version of the events.
“I thought about it during the months of the lockdown when I had time to look inside myself. And I kept this ‘diary’, writing about the things I had experienced in the most difficult moments of my life.
Leotta talks candidly about having nude photos of herself plastered on websites after they were stolen.
She said: “My mobile phone was hacked and some of my private photos ended up on the Internet.
“Then I was blackmailed via text message in the middle of the night in July 2019.
“The message was: ‘You have 8 hours to deliver EUR 30,000 (GBP 27,300), otherwise we will broadcast an intimate film about you’, however, there was never an intimate video of me.
“The previous accident with the stolen images felt like a sword that pierced me, I felt violated. When the blackmail happened, I was already afraid of threats, I was dazed.
“But, I immediately called the policewoman who had helped me with the previous case and, in the end, everything was resolved ”.
Leotta says that living in the public eye can be difficult, saying: “There is a fine line that must not be crossed. I had drones coming to my balcony, I suffered a theft at home!”
The journalist says that she wrote the book with the purpose of helping others get through similar situations and to avoid being subjugated and overwhelmed.
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
