In April of 2021, Sydney Raines received a message where she was asked if she was in a relationship or knew Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports.
Raines said that she was at her nanny job looking after the children when she received the message.
During an interview with The Post, Raines, who is just 22 years old, said that they sent her a video and when she asked how they got it, they said it was sent to them.
She added: “They sent me a video and said it was sent to them. Then I got a text from another friend asking if I was OK. I was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”
The video that she was in, went viral and it was sex tape that she had made with Dave Portnoy in July of 2020 when she visited him at his house in nantucket Massachusets.
Raines said she Googled her name to see if it was uploaded anywhere else and when she did make the search, she saw a video that showed Portnoy holding a leash that was attached to a collar around her neck.
It was all over the internet by the time she got the message.
Raines said that she has no idea how the video managed to get out or how it was leaked, and she also made it clear that she did not do it.
The 22 year old reached out to Portnoy too to ask about the video, who had zero clue on how it managed to get out on the internet.
Talking about the video, Raines said that she was not really in panic mode when she found out about the video.
She explained: “I didn’t have a moment of my heart dropping or panic until my mother said we needed to talk. But she ended up being supportive. A lot of friends started checking in and Dave reached out multiple times to make sure I was OK.”
After the video went viral on the internet, stock prices for the Penn National Gaming, which owns around 36 percent stake in Barstool Sports, saw a temporary dip.
Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, brushed off the claims of people by saying: “Somebody committing a crime by leaking an old video of sex between two consenting adults seems like a dumb reason for a stock to go down.”
Raines on the other hand did not cry out loud when she posted a video of herself on her social media, where she talked about how she owned her actions and she was ran by friends and Portnoy.
Talking about the video, Raines said: “I became aware yesterday that a video has surfaced on the internet and yes, that was me. Some might not approve of the video content but it was entirely consensual and it’s unfortunate it is no longer private but [Portnoy and I] are still friends with no animosity . . . I won’t label this a mistake since we have both taken responsibility for it.”
She added: “I’ve always been really open about my sexuality. Maybe I don’t care when I should but I really saw it as just a bump in the road. It wasn’t going to ruin me. I feel like people might see me as a victim in that situation, but I haven’t seen myself that way.”
Raines ended the video by saying “with no apologies, Syd.”
The 22 year old said her inbox got filled up with positive and negative messages after she posted the video on the internet.
A lot of people that found out about the incident said that she was paid by Portnoy to leak the video on the internet so they could profit from the stock market prices dropping.
Raines on the other hand denies everything.
She added: “I haven’t gotten anything from this. It wasn’t about money, it was about my conscience. Nothing much has changed.”
Following the video getting leaked, Raines started getting offers to strip and was even asked to become an ambassador for multiple clothing companies.
The mother of Raines at one point joked with Raines suggesting she should open or start an account on OnlyFans.
Talking about her mother, Raines said: “She was like, ‘if you are posting these half-naked pictures [on Instagram], you might as well make money from it.’ But she doesn’t know that a lot of girls on [OnlyFans] do porn. My pictures are R-rated, not X-rated. I want to keep it that way.”
Raines did not reveal or talk about their plans to file a case with hopes of finding who leaked their video on the internet.