Nigerian Afrobeat star Tiwa Savage reveals that she is being threatened with sex tape, but says she will not pay.
She said the video was accidentally posted to Snapchat by her lover who deleted it after noticing his error, but it had already been downloaded by the stalker.
She cried when she first saw the video and said she was afraid of the reaction.
41-year-old Savage is one of the largest Afrobeat stars in the world and has a contract with Universal Music Group.
She is famous for songs such as Kele Kele and Eminado, part of Mavin Records of Don Jazzy in Nigeria, and was known as the First Lady.
“I’m not going to call it a sex tape, but it’s a tape between me and the person I’m dating right now,” she told New York Power 105.1 radio host Angie Martinez.
She revealed that the incident happened last month, and that the person tried to extort money from her, but did not allow anyone to intimidate her “because she did something natural.”
“I’m so crazy that I was able to get it out myself. You’re not making money from me,” she said.
She is currently in the United States and is promoting her latest album, Water and Gully, in collaboration with American stars such as Brandy and Naz.
She was calm throughout the interview, but she said she was experiencing internal turmoil and couldn’t sleep when she first received the video on Wednesday.
“Why the music is so good right now and I don’t want to obscure what’s going on,” she said.
She was worried about how she would be perceived by fans, friends and family, but said she wasn’t going to succumb to blackmail.
Savage married artist manager Tunji “Teebillz” Balogun in 2013, but filed for divorce in 2018 after being publicly dropped two years ago on charges of unfaithfulness.
They have a 6-year-old son, and Savage says he is worried about the impact of the video on him and her mother.
“I’m going to talk to him, and to me that’s when he’s about 15 years old and someone is trying to be rude to him … I just have to support him.” She said.
Revenge pornography and non-consensual pornography (sharing someone’s intimate images and videos) are becoming an increasingly problematic issue, especially for young women in many parts of the world.
In Nigeria, victims are protected by the 2015 Cybercrime Act and can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. And two years ago, a man was convicted of sharing a photo of his lover on Facebook.