American actor Dylan Sprouse is the latest celebrity to become the victim of a nude photo scandal.

The 21-year-old, of Suite Life of Zack and Cody fame, was shocked when two of his personal photos surfaced on Twitter.

In one photo he is seen flexing his muscles in a pair of white boxer shorts and in the other he is fully nude, exposing his private area.

The Hollywood Gossip said: "An old flame posted full frontal nude pictures of Sprouse that he 'sexted' her."

Sprouse quickly took to his Twitter account to address the issue.

"Whoops, guess I'm not 14 and fat anymore," he tweeted, adding: "I messed up ... but I'd be a fool not to own up to it. Got to move past it I suppose."

"At least you can't see my third testicle," he joked.

He added "n00d pic dealer" to his Twitter biography too.

Sprouse later released a lengthy statement on his Tumblr page to tell his side of the story.

"I figured I would write my thoughts on it all. After having a night to sleep on it and a day to reflect, I think there has been ample time to gather my thoughts while the encounter is still fresh."

Sprouse further defended himself saying that he was proud of his progress in the gym.

"Thought I looked hot, and wanted to share it. I'm of the mindset that whoever you are, if you are proud of your body and want to show it off, so be it! You do you. There is an odd taboo with the human form (especially in the USA) and I don't particularly think its a good thing to teach people that you should "hide yourself" as something incredibly sacred. Blah blah blah, that's a medieval notion."

He said the real problem was not his sending his pictures to someone, but sending them to the wrong person.

He added: "Finally though, and I think that this is the most important part, because of this, I gained 200,000 followers on twitter, 40,000 followers on tumblr, and 20,000 followers on instagram...I was proud of myself and my progress since I was 14 and husky, I'm not proud of this incident's potential lasting effects on my academic and artistic integrity."

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