Mischa Barton Opens Up About Sex Tape To Dr. Phil

Mischa Barton is taking both legal action and media action against the men who allegedly tried exploiting her with a sex tape.

The actress, 31, appeared on Dr. Phil on Monday, April 3, 2017, where she vented about the incident to host Dr. Phil McGraw.

"It was a crime," she said firmly in the segment. "It is a serious crime to tape people without their knowledge like that and I had made the mistake of putting myself in the situation with the person so I just removed myself as quickly as I could, and then it just continued to be complete emotional abuse after that for the last several, several months."

Barton claimed that she found out about the alleged sex tape when a friend approached her on the street. "[My friend] said, 'There's something I need to tell you,'" she recalled. "And I didn't believe it at first. I couldn't believe it, because I had loved this person and I didn't think it was possible ... and I later learned it was entirely possible."

Barton, who was hospitalized for a mental evaluation in late January 2017, added that the person who she accused of making the tape without her knowledge was a boyfriend from a whirlwind relationship.

"I didn't know him for that long — it was, like, three to four weeks, it was very fast," she admitted. "I feel very conned by the whole thing. It's somebody I trusted, somebody I thought I loved. I really did think that." She also claimed that the person in question allegedly recorded their intimate sessions almost immediately after they began dating. "Again, I loved this person and I really thought I could trust them," she said, "but there's no way that it wasn't premeditated if from the second you start seeing somebody they're doing that to you. That is — that, to me, is premeditated."

Barton and her legal team previously promised to take action against what they allege was a case of "revenge porn."

"It has been reported that naked or sexually explicit images of Ms. Barton are being 'shopped around,'" Barton's attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement in March 2017. "Ms. Barton does not consent to any disclosure of any such images. She believes that she was recorded without her consent by someone she was seeing at the time ... There's a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography. Revenge pornography is a form of sexual assault, and it is also a crime and a civil wrong in California. And we will not stand for it ... [If anyone shares the video we will] fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law."

On Wednesday, April 5, 2017, Barton obtained an extension to two restraining orders she has against the two men she accused of being involved with the recording and attempted release of the tapes. The Daily Mail reported that Bloom filed for extensions to the domestic violence protective orders against Jason Spaw (formerly known as Jason Shaw) and Jon Zacharias, both of whom are reportedly blaming the other for the leak and attempted sale and recording of the sex tapes. However, process servers have reportedly had difficulty serving Zacharias with his paperwork.

Bloom told the Daily Mail, "Every day that the images are not released is a victory for us. We are pleased the judge has extended the orders for a few weeks so that we can track down Mr. Zacharias, who seems to be evading service. We will not rest until we have permanent orders in place protecting Ms. Barton's rights to the privacy of images of her own body."