Halsey says a music manager went through her nude photos without consent

Halsey opens up about a “demoralizing” moment when someone in the industry violated her privacy.

During his appearance on the October 30 episode Call her dad On the podcast, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter revealed that they caught an “influential” music executive going through nude photos of her on her phone – and possibly sending them to himself.

Halsey brought up the incident as she and host Alex Cooper discussed sexual power dynamics in the entertainment industry — and the “scary” situations that can arise as a result.

“I had a really weird situation a few years ago,” Halsey began. “I mean, I guess it was quite a long time ago, but I was out there and I was with this executive, like this really powerful executive who works in the music industry in some capacity.”

At the time, The great imitator The artist – who uses the pronouns “she/they” – had been “hanging out” and “working” with the executive and was accompanied by her two “older” male managers, leaving her feeling “like everything was really okay.” , she explained.

“It was purely celebratory and there was a lot of industry discussion. I didn’t have any weird feeling about it at all,” they said. “I never felt unsafe or anything.”

During the evening, the unnamed manager asked Halsey to send his niece a photo of himself and the “Closer” singer, at which point she pulled out her phone and gave it to him, the musician recalled.

“I took a selfie of the two of us, gave him my phone and said, 'Send it to yourself.' I have to pee.' And then I went to the bathroom and when I came back he gave me my phone like this,” Halsey told Cooper, quickly putting down an imaginary phone without showing the screen.

“And I saw that he was going through my nude photos on my phone,” they explained.

After sitting down, Halsey said she “didn't even know what to do” and began to wonder if it actually happened. “I just froze,” she remembers. “I thought, 'Did I just imagine it? Was that an accident? Did the phone scroll up? What the hell just happened?'”

“And then I thought, 'Did he write it himself and then delete it?' “I don't even know where these are now,” she continued, explaining that the “invasive” incident put her in a dark place mentally.

“I’m in this situation where I have so much power,” they said. “I have a bodyguard and I have, you know, all the leverage in the world and I'm in this exclusive area in this VIP, I've reached the ranks that say, 'Oh, I'm protected or whatever else it may be .'” Be.' And then this invasive thing just happens on a whim.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

It made her feel “regressive,” the star explained. “I went from saying, 'Yeah, I'm a smoking hot guy and I'm one of the big ones.' And then I sat down.”

“And when that happened, in that moment I thought, 'You're nothing.' You are nothing. You will always be nothing. You're still just that damn girl that's being taken advantage of or like men are talking about you behind your back or you're like security,” she continued. “I thought, 'You're nothing.' It was so demoralizing.”

“So many worse things have happened to me,” Halsey added, “but this one stood out for some reason because it was so casual.”