‘Shortland Street’ Star Teuila Blakely Receives Death Threats Following Sex Tape Leak
Kiwi TV actress Teuila Blakely has hit back at the Pacific Island community for bullying her after her sex tape with New Zealand Warriors rugby league player Konrad Hurrell was leaked on the Internet.
The 39-year-old “Shortland Street” star has faced backlash from the conservative society after footage of her performing fellatio on Hurrell in a car was uploaded online earlier in May.
“I’ve had requests from Samoa for me and my whole family to commit suicide. People wish I would die and they would never hear from me because I’m an ‘uneducated slut,’” she told TVNZ.
Hurrell, who took the video, was fined $5000 by the club, and was ordered to undergo counselling on the use of social media. The Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah said that the 22-year-old player was “full of remorse” over the incident.
However, it appears that it’s Blakely who appears to bear the brunt of the scandal, with the Pacific Island communities out to shame her for the leaked video.
“And I feel like what has interested the public, the Pacific public, is the fact that they have an opportunity to shame a woman a woman for being sexual,” she said.
“What upsets me is the way they are voicing those judgments. It’s like they’re being so cruel. And, you know, I haven’t killed anybody.”
Blakely has previously addressed the scandal after admitting that she was the woman in the clip, saying that she was positive that everyone would move on from the issue eventually.
“I know this has caused a lot of pain, humiliation and embarrassment to those closest to me, especially my family and to the Samoan community. Here, in New Zealand, Samoa and overseas,” she wrote on her Facebook.
“I know that this is difficult for some of you to extend to me the same kind of understanding and I fully accept that, as well as everything else I am currently facing.
“I hope that at some point we will all move on from this in a positive way as life is too far short to be lived in any other way.”
South Pacific Pictures, the production company of “Shortland Street,” refused to comment on the actress’ involvement in the sex scandal, saying it was a personal matter, not professional.