Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Matilda star Mara Wilson has spoken about the shocking moment she came across fake explicit images claiming to show her when she was just 12.
Wilson became a household name after playing the lead in the 1996 adaptation of Matilda, cementing her place among the best-known child actors of the era.
The film also featured Danny DeVito as Matilda’s scheming father, Rhea Perlman as her mother Zinnia, Pam Ferris as the feared Miss Trunchbull, and Embeth Davidtz as the kind-hearted Miss Honey.
'I could not stop crying… It may have been one of the factors that led me to not want to act anymore.'
Actress and child star Mara Wilson opened up about how fake child sexual abuse material made of her after starring in big films like Matilda made her feel 'incredibly… pic.twitter.com/VIAAZpwHO4
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 27, 2026
Now 38, Wilson told Channel 4 about an experience she says has stayed with her for decades, after she decided to look herself up online as a child.
Speaking to Channel 4, she 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.”
Describing what she found, Wilson said it included people claiming they had sexual images of her—despite the fact she was a pre-teen and such material did not exist.
Opening up about the dark moment, Wilson added: “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.”
She explained that bad actors had taken stills and clips from her work as a child and altered them into child sexual abuse material.
“I was incredibly devastated, I could not stop crying, I felt ashamed, I tried to hide. I think it may have been one of the factors that led me to not want to act anymore,” she added.
This is not the first time Wilson has publicly addressed the issue, having previously described similar experiences in an earlier account.
In a piece for the New York Times, she previously 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.”
Wilson also warned that the problem is becoming increasingly widespread as technology evolves.
She said tools powered by artificial intelligence are making it easier to create and distribute manipulated images, and stressed that this risk extends far beyond celebrities.
“With AI, what happened to me can happen to any child or any woman. It can happen to anybody,” she said.
Wilson has also spoken previously about losing her mother to cancer during the post-production period of Matilda, following a six-month illness.
“I felt completely lost, completely unmoored,” she said, speaking to the Guardian, “There was who I was before that, and who I was after that.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.