Former golf professional Paige Spiranac spoke out about the horrible experience of having her nude photo published. She also shared how she regained control of her body and got her "t*ts out" according to her terms.

The picture was sent by the social media personality, aged 29, to a man she was seeing. However, things went sour after their breakup.

Her ex shared the photo with his friends. Before long, the image was out of control. Spiranac had to deal with a flood of messages from strangers who had seen the image.

The Americans refused to reveal to her how they got the photo.

She said that she had previously spoken on her podcast, "Playing-A-Round", saying: "It's horrible to get random messages from people you don’t know, and they’ve seen you so vulnerablely." It was horrible.

"When I confronted him and said, "I can't believe that you did this to my?", he replied, "You are the sl*t that sent it to me. You deserve this."

Things spiraled out of control as time passed.

"I would wake up every day and check my phone to see if I was going to be on TMZ today," she said. She added, "Am i going to have here, am i going to there?"

"That was the worst. It was always stressful to know that someone would see it, someone would get it, and that it would get out.

"Also that was just one picture. I don't know what other pictures he had, or what he was going for. He could do it all again if he did it once.

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Spiranac was subject to vile abuse and death threats, with trolls telling Spiranac that she was responsible for her pain.

Things reached breaking point just minutes before a Dubai press conference when someone threatened to publish the photo online unless she paid him...or sent him more.

Spiranac, who was later in tears before the media, spoke about how hurtful it was for internet users to make judgments about her.

A fan who thought she was just looking for an autograph at an event in Lake Tahoe pulled out an enlarged version of the nude photo - in front of many other guests, including children - and signed it.

Spiranac was again moved to tears by the incident. She felt the weight of not being able "escape" from the image.

She said, "These little events kept happening where it was like, "OK, I think that's over it." It might be a month before it is brought up again.

It keeps coming up again, and again, and reminding me of the man and what he did me and all of my trauma.

"Every life event was also connected to that, which was extremely traumatic for me."

Spiranac felt also the absurd double standards of some men. She was constantly "sl*t shamed", while being sent photos of men's genitalia by strangers.

She had always longed to be in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. When the chance presented itself, she was able to put her fears behind her and get her life back on track.

Then, her perspective changed a bit. "Winning in mine was taking control over my body," she thought. And she did exactly that.

One picture stood out from the many glossy photos she took with the magazine.

She stated, "I was naked, I was nude." It was the best moment of my life.

"I felt empowered, and I was like, "OK, if this is what I'm going do, it's on my terms." I took back my body, and it was my turn.

"That was the moment that I won, right then, when I did Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, and I had all my t**s out."

Spiranac has more than two million followers on Instagram and she has a vision to make her platform work for good.

She was made an ambassador for Cybersmile in 2017, a charity that provides support and education programmes to combat cyber bullying.

With the launch of her podcast, she has entered the next phase of her career. The self-described "OG Insta golf gal" hopes to continue contributing to good causes.