After over two days of silence, the family of Bryan Hamade, the internet's main suspect in the nude celebrity photo leaks, spoke exclusively to BuzzFeed.
"It's getting to the point that my mom is being borderline harassed by everyone," Bryan's brother, Andrew, said this afternoon.
Andrew said that despite being at the center of this scandal, his brother's spirits were still high. "He's good, he's a little mind-blown about the whole thing. It's a crazy situation and he's a little shocked that this is really even happening," he said.
"Right now my brother won't turn on his phone because so many people are finding his number. If he turns it on it's just like a massacre."
While Andrew is unsure if his brother has hired an attorney, he said that he's been in close contact with legal representation to make a statement tomorrow. "He's been with an attorney all day and that attorney is speaking with somebody else to arrange making a statement of some kind. We've been told there's no legal problems right now and it's not like he's running. He just doesn't want people hating him," the brother told BuzzFeed.
When asked, Andrew Hamade said Bryan has not been approached by law enforcement, contrary to internet rumors. "He's not been contacted by the FBI. I've seen a lot of different stuff online but Bryan's phone has been off and they'd probably be calling us family members if they were after him. I'm his only actual brother. There's nothing going on with that. Nobody besides news reporters have gone to my house."
Andrew said his brother was "doing well" but expressed concern for their mother.
"We had people at our house all day yesterday and it was just wild — my mom couldn't even go through the driveway," he said.
The 24-year-old also tried to dispel some of the information floating around the internet, specifically regarding Southern Digital Media, the company BuzzFeed and other outlets reported Hamade worked for.
"Southern Digital Media is a site my mom made to test out web hosting. She's never really even used it for work, I don't think. The media are searching every channel for information and all the people on the site are actually our family members," Hamade said, noting that one listed staffer on Southern Digital Media — Andrew's 15 year-old half-brother — had been harassed as a result. "He's just a little kid who likes to play Minecraft and now he is in the center of this thing and, I mean, he has to go to school with all of this going on."
As for the allegations that Hamade was linked to a nude photography studio called ShiggityDiggity Studios, Andrew laughed it off as an old joke.
"Just to clear that up, it's a joke he made back in the day and I think people are reading into it too much. I actually had a laugh about that one," he said.
While Andrew couldn't provide any information as to when his brother would issue a statement Thursday, he reiterated that he believed this would all blow over soon.
"The best way I can word it is that it's a massive misunderstanding," he said. "It's wild."