‘Forgive me,’ body-shaming Playboy model pleads to woman she photographed naked
In her first interview since photographing a naked woman at the gym and sharing the image on Snapchat, former Playboy model Dani Mathers said she “just wasn’t thinking” when she did it.
Last week the 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year pleaded no contest to invasion of privacy for photographing a 70-year-old woman in an L.A. Fitness shower last July.
Mathers was roundly criticized online for body-shaming the older woman with a derogatory remark.
As part of her plea deal, Mathers cannot take pictures of anyone or post them online without their permission during her three years of probation.
“It’s taught me a lot about privacy,” Mathers told ABC News on Wednesday in an interview with her lawyer at her side.
“I’ve lost a lot of that myself as well. We’ve had a lot of paparazzi involved in my family life. I had my privacy taken away after I took someone else’s.
“To hide out at my mother’s house at age 30 because of something I’ve done. It just felt really low.”
Mathers has said she received death threats after the incident. She apologized online, saying she was new to Snapchat and didn’t mean to share the woman’s picture with the world. But she has not yet apologized to the woman directly, she told ABC.
“I haven’t been able to actually meet the woman involved, although I’ve wanted to. So there’s just been a lot of unresolved issues,” she said.
“I never meant to hurt her. I never ever intended on showing the world this photo. And that I hope that she could forgive me. I don’t expect her to forget. I don’t expect her to like me. I just, I really want her forgiveness.”
She said she had no intention of breaking a law, “but obviously I think hopefully everybody knows it’s illegal to take a photo of somebody without their knowledge. Especially when they’re undressed. So I just wasn’t thinking, to be honest.”
Through tears she apologized again to her victim, saying: “I just want her to be able to move on and move forward in her life and not feel judged or that what she was doing was being ridiculed because it had nothing to do with that. And that I’m so sorry.”
Last week Mathers was given the choice of serving 45 days in jail or 30 days of community service removing graffiti around Los Angeles.
She chose the community service.
She starts cleaning up messes this week.
This story was originally published June 1, 2017 at 10:52 AM with the headline "‘Forgive me,’ body-shaming Playboy model pleads to woman she photographed naked."