Former Rep. Katie Hill On What Stopped Her From Committing Suicide After Nude Photo Scandal

Former Rep. Katie Hill, who resigned in October 2019 after being in the office for less than a year, has written in a New York Times op-ed that post her resignation, she fell into one of the "darkest places". She further shared that she struggled with suicidal thoughts after the alleged "revenge porn" incident and even ran a blade across her wrists but the thought of the people who looked up to her, stopped her from going further.

“And then I thought about my supporters. I thought about the high school students who had told me how I inspired them. I thought about the Girl Scouts whose troops I’d visited who told me they wanted to grow up to be like me, and how their parents would explain this to them, and what it would do to them. And I realized I couldn’t do it.” she wrote.

In November 2018, Hill was elected to serve as the US representative for California's 25th Congressional district. In 2019, she resigned from the post after the controversial news of her being in a relationship with a campaign aide surfaced along with nude photos of Hill, which were published without her consent.

Hill has been going through a tough divorce “from an abusive husband who seems determined to try to humiliate me.” In her article, she said that she has serious doubts about her estranged husband Kenny Heslep being the one behind the entire episode.

"Many people have nightmares in which they're naked in public, trapped and trying to escape," Hill wrote. She was "shaking, crying, throwing up" in the days after the photos were published as it was not just her who faced harassment as her family was stalked, her sister’s business was trolled, and her staffers received "lewd" threats.

All the added pressure further pushed her towards ending it all. “I just wanted it all to be over," she said. But the thought of her family, friends, and people who loved her and cared for her stopped her from taking that last final step.

"I don't get to quit," Hill wrote. "I have to keep going forward, and be part of the fight to create the change that those young girls are counting on."

Today, Hill is striving to ensure that strict laws are passed to ensure that victims are protected against revenge porn in an era where digital exploitation is rather rampant.