Celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 16:25 04 May 2026 GMT
A former child star who played the protagonist in the 1996 film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda has recently opened up about a horrific discovery she made after googling herself.
Mara Wilson revealed to Channel 4 that a few years after starring in the beloved movie, she looked herself up on the internet, and what she saw has haunted her ever since.
The now 38-year-old discovered people claiming they had images of the prepubescent actor nude and having sex in forums.
Wilson explained: "So the summer I turned 12 years old, I decided to look myself up on the internet, and I spent the next 25 years or so, to this day, wishing I had never done it."
“Because what I found were people on a forum saying they had images of me nude and having sex.
"I was 12 years old, obviously, there was nothing like that out there about me, I had never been kissed."
Twisted criminals had turned clips and images of the star into manipulated child sexual abuse material.
Speaking about her reaction to finding the material, Wilson said, "I was incredibly devastated, I could not stop crying, I felt ashamed, I tried to hide.
Tragically, she admitted, “I think it may have been one of the factors that led me to not want to act anymore."
The star has chosen to speak out again now because the crime is becoming even more common and easy to commit in the age of AI.
Wilson hopes to warn people about the spread of harmful manipulated images online, as with the widespread use of social media, it's not limited to those in the public eye.
She said, "With AI, what happened to me can happen to any child or any woman. It can happen to anybody."
However, this is not the first time Wilson has spoken about what she went through publicly.
In a 2021 article for the New York Times, called “The lies Hollywood tells about little girls” she said: "Before I even turned 12, there were images of me on foot fetish websites and photoshopped into child pornography.
"Every time, I felt ashamed."
