Paulina Porizkova has revealed she was sued after making an ‘expensive mistake’ on Instagram – and is now afraid to post anything other than pictures of herself.
The supermodel, 58, opened up on the social media platform earlier this month about her legal woes as she shared a makeup-free photo of herself posing in a floral robe with her eyes wide open and her chin in her hand.
“One of the reasons I’ve been posting a lot of self-generated content lately is because I’m terrified. Of what, you may ask? To be sued. Again,” she wrote in the caption.
Porizkova explained that she “posted about the horrors in Ukraine” last year and shared a photographer’s photo of the war she found on Instagram to “illustrate the story.”
Paulina Porizkova, 58, opened up about her recent legal woes this month, saying she was ‘smitten with a lawsuit’ after making an ‘expensive mistake’ on Instagram
The supermodel explained that she “posted about the horrors in Ukraine” last year and shared a photographer’s photo of the war she found on Instagram
“Six months later I got a lawsuit filed by a law firm on behalf of a photographer. I had used his photo without his permission or without paying to use it,” she said.
“Until then I didn’t even realize this was a thing: reposting photos from the internet is illegal.”
Porizkova admitted that as a model she has become used to people sharing her photos without permission and was unaware of the legal ramifications.
“My images get used all the time, and unless someone is trying to sell something with the images, I was fine with this. It turns out not,” she continued.
“There are law firms out there that do nothing but scour social media for dummies like me who have enough followers to pay.”
Porizkova said they eventually “went out of court” because “they were right” — despite her “best intentions” when she posted the image.
“I used an unauthorized photo — even if it conveyed the message I thought the photographer was trying to make — that war is bad,” she explained. “And man, what a costly mistake that turned out to be!”
So if you already find my thread unbearable in its vanity and narcissism, it doesn’t get any better. Maybe you don’t want to follow now before I annoy you further,” she warned.
Porizkova said they eventually “went out of court” for using the photo without the photographer’s permission – despite her “best intentions” at the time
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit alum admitted she’s now ‘terrified’ of posting anything other than pictures of herself
“For those of you who don’t mind – thank you for taking this journey called life with me.” I am so very grateful!’
Porizkova ended her post with the hashtags #betweenjloandbettywhite #gettingsuedisexpensive,” adding, “Yes, this is what I look like in the morning.”
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit alum’s most recent Instagram posts have been a mix of selfies, posed photos, and images from her modeling shoots.
She has also taken many romantic photos of herself with her boyfriend, TV writer and producer, Jeff Greenstein.
Porizkova first revealed she was seeing someone new in March when she and Greenstein were “in the early days” of their relationship, but she kept his identity under wraps.
Two months later, she made their romance Instagram official when she posted a picture of them deleting Raya – the app they met on – from their cell phones and tagging him.
Porizkova and Greenstein celebrated three months together with a trip to Paris, and they’ve been traveling together ever since.
The writer, producer and director is best known as the showrunner of the hit sitcom Will & Grace, but he has also worked on a number of other series including Dream On, Partners, Getting Personal and State of Georgia.
Porizkova shared many romantic photos of herself with her boyfriend, TV writer and producer, Jeff Greenstein during their travels this summer.
Porizkova first revealed she was seeing someone new in March when she and Greenstein were “in the early days” of their relationship. “I found my prince,” she later shared on Instagram
Porizkova was married to rocker Ric Ocasek for 30 years when he unexpectedly died of cardiovascular disease at the age of 75 on September 15, 2019.
They had separated and were getting a divorce when she found him dead in their shared Manhattan townhouse.
The day after The Cars frontman died, she learned that he had cut her out of his will several weeks before, claiming she had “abandoned” him. He left her with no money to live on, including her own earnings.
She later reached a settlement with her late husband’s estate and received what was owed to her under New York state law, one-third of Ocasek’s assets.
Porizkova has been open about her struggles with dating and meeting her men in their 50s after three decades of marriage.
She admitted in a recent post that one of her relationship problems was “falling for people with commitment issues.”
I had to relearn this part. Three years of intensive self-work and lots of sweet frog kisses. And that’s how I found my prince,” she explained.