This week on Legally Us, Rachael Bennett, a certified family law specialist and senior attorney at Sullivan Law & Associates, breaks down Kelly Dodd’s revenge porn allegations.
On May 28, former Real Housewives of Orange County alum, 50, pleaded not guilty to revenge porn allegations.
Dodd is currently facing three misdemeanor charges including battery, arising from an alleged incident involving an unnamed individual in June 2025, and disorderly conduct, related to allegations that she shared sexual images of another person without their consent in August 2025. She also faces a misdemeanor charge of making telephone calls with intent to annoy in connection with the alleged revenge porn case.
“The main thing to know about revenge porn cases is that intent is really the key element for a successful prosecution. The evidence has to prove that the defendant shared intimate content that should have remained private, and not only was the content intentionally shared without the victim’s consent, but that the defendant did so with the intent to cause the victim severe emotional distress,” Bennett explains to Us. “Motive is absolutely key here, and this case, I think, is going to hinge on the circumstances that led to the circulation of these explicit images, so I would expect the judge is going to want to know how the images were obtained, and then also what was the history of the relationship between Kelly and the woman that led to the circumstances in the first place.”
According to court documents obtained by TMZ on May 27, prosecutors allege that the reality star “unlawfully and intentionally” distributed images depicting a Jane Doe engaged in sexual activity. TMZ reported that the footage allegedly showed a woman having sex and masturbating and was shared without her consent.
Prosecutors further allege that the woman experienced severe emotional distress after Dodd allegedly distributed the footage in August 2025. According to the allegations, Dodd and the woman had agreed to keep the images private.
Dodd also allegedly “contacted the person and threatened to injure her, her property and her family,” according to the report.
“She’s pleading not guilty, which means this case will be moving forward to a jury trial,” Bennett explains. “Leading up to that trial, any comments she makes about the case or about the victim can be used by prosecutors in court, just as long as they’re relevant.”
She adds, “If her story ever changes, they can definitely pull clips from her show or use videos that she posts to social media to impeach her credibility, and then point out any inconsistencies. This is why we usually see defendants stick with the standard ‘no comment’ response while their cases are pending, because even the slightest misstatement can be disastrous for them.”
Dodd and her husband, Rick Leventhal, addressed the allegations in a video ahead of her court hearing.
“I was like, ‘What the actual F is going on here?’” Dodd said in an Instagram clip from their “Rick and Kelly Show” podcast. “Then we see [the report]. It’s hilarious to me, by the way.”
Dodd appeared on five seasons of RHOC from 2016 to 2021. She and Leventhal tied the knot in October 2020.
