Halsey says a music executive looked through her nude photos without consent

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

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

Halsey brought up the incident as she and host Alex Cooper discussed sexual power dynamics within the entertainment industry — and the “creepy” situations that can arise as a result of them.

“I had a really weird situation a few years ago,” Halsey began. “I mean, I think it was quite a long time ago, but I was out and I was with this boss, like this really powerful boss who works with music in some capacity.”

At that time, The great impersonator artist – who uses she/they pronouns – had “hung out” and “worked” with the director and was accompanied by her two “older” male managers, so she felt “like everything was really fine,” she explained.

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

During the evening, the unnamed boss asked Halsey to send a photo of herself and the “Closer” singer to her 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 said, ‘Text this to yourself. I’m going to pee.’ And then I went to the bathroom and when I came back he handed me my phone like this,” Halsey told Cooper, quickly putting down an imaginary phone without showing the screen.

“And I saw that he was going through my nudes on my phone,” they explained.

After sitting down, Halsey said she “didn’t even know what to do,” and began to question whether it actually happened. “I was just frozen,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Did I just set that up? Was it an accident? Did the phone scroll up? What the hell just happened?’

Halsey in Las Vegas in September 2024.

David Becker/Getty


“And then I thought, ‘Did he throw them to himself and then delete the messages? I don’t even know where they are now,'” she continued, explaining that the “invasive” incident took her to a dark place mentally.

“I’m in this situation where I have so much power,” they said. “I have a bodyguard and I have, you know, all the power in the world and I’m in this exclusive room in this VIP, I’ve reached the level of like, ‘Oh, I’m protected or whatever had to have. be.’ And then this invasive thing just happens on a whim.”

Never miss a story – sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

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

“And when it happened, in that moment, I thought, ‘You’re nothing.’ You are nothing. You will always be nothing. You’re still just the f—ing girl that’s taken advantage of, or that men talk about you behind your back, or you’re kind of like security,” she continued. “I was like, ‘You’re nothing.’ It was so demoralizing.”

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