Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Back in the fall, I received an unexpected text from a man I had just started seeing. Assuming he was joking, I laughed and said no. Then he sent me a link to my wikiFeet page. I had never actually heard of the website — basically an encyclopedia of celebrity foot photos for fetishists and foot enthusiasts — until that moment. To be clear, I am not a celebrity.
I have decent Twitter following from having reported on politics for over a decade, from tweeting jokes about politics and appearing on cable news sometimes.
But I was pretty shocked to be looking at my own wikiFeet profile, which included my full name, birthday, and photos of me and my exposed feet, dating back to a family vacation in The images seemed to have been lifted from my Instagram page, which I keep public because I share my work and media appearances there sometimes.
My feet had a very sad 3. Within minutes, a screenshot of it showed up on wikiFeet. At this point, my investigative journalist instincts kicked in. This narrowed the list of suspects down significantly, but not quite enough to be conclusive. No shade, I just have questions. His name is Robert Hamilton, a year-old salesman from northern New Jersey. I admit I posted, if it bothers you I apologise and will not do it again.
Robert agreed to go on the record and was helpful and responsive as I tried to set up an interview. I was only reminded of the nature of our relationship at one point when he asked, right after saying he was available to chat Thursday, whether my feet are ticklish. I dodged the question. I called him on Thursday afternoon, while he was in the middle of watching a Yankees game. We spoke for nearly an hour, almost entirely about feet.
