"I deeply apologise. I know what I did was probably one of the worst invasions of privacy someone could experience. And these people don't have privacy to begin with. And I was in that little sliver of privacy they do have," he told Action News Fox 30.
"[The hacking] started as a curiosity and it turned into just being addicted to seeing the behind-the-scenes of what's going on with these people you see on the big screen every day.
"It was almost reading, like, a completely uncensored blog. I wasn't saving the emails to blackmail someone.
"I didn't know how to stop doing it myself, I wasn't attempting to break into emails and get stuff to sell or purposefully put it on the internet.
"I've had like six months to think about it. It eats at me. When you're doing it, you're not thinking about what's going on with who you're doing it to."
He also pleaded not guilty.
Johansson later broke her silence about the scandal.
"It was terrible ... It was extremely creepy," she told David Letterman in December.
"What was even more creepy about it is that the person was obviously following me ...
"My email password was constantly changing, for months and months and months. And I kept thinking, 'Why is my password always changing?'
"And so it meant the guy was really there, constantly, like, every 20 seconds. He (was) just sitting there all pasty, and sweaty, and pervy, and weird. That's the creepiest thing."
She also made light of the leak in a sit-down with Vanity Fair.
"I know my best angles," she quipped. "[The photos] were sent to my husband. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I was shooting a porno."
'I couldn't figure it out...'
The Avengers star has once again addressed the leak in an interview with Stylist magazine, admitting that she felt "more vulnerable" and "absolutely violated" after her personal email was hacked.
"It was really terrible; I felt absolutely violated," she says, "I wasn't really aware of how vulnerable all of us are, but I think everybody is just discovering that now, especially with the recent phone-hacking scandals."
She continues: "It isn't just celebrities, it's all kinds of people who are not asking for the spotlight. Being hacked made me feel more vulnerable than I ever had previously.
"I couldn't figure it out. For a while, I thought it must be someone that I knew who was posting these pictures of me and that was making me incredibly paranoid. I was looking around at all of my friends, who I have known for 20 years, wondering who the backstabber was. So to find out it wasn't a friend who hacked in was a relief, oddly."
Johansson isn't the first, and I doubt she'll be the last, celebrity to fall victim to hackers.
Earlier this month, Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and Olivia Munn were targeted by hackers who broke into their mobiles and leaked personal photos online.
"Christina's phone was in fact hacked and photos were stolen," Hendricks' rep confirmed, adding that a topless snap doing the rounds was not legit.
"The topless image is fake and not an image of Christina," said the rep.
Hot on the heels of Hendricks' hacking, Glee star Heather Morris followed suit. A set of risqué photos, purportedly of the actress, surfaced online on Sunday.
Some of the shots show a woman in various forms of undress, striking a series of seductive poses in front of the camera. While one shows the woman in an outfit similar to what Morris wore during the Britney Spears tribute episode of Glee.
But are they legit?
A rep for Morris has yet to comment on the alleged leak.
In 2010, nude-modelling snaps of Morris surfaced online. She issued a statement saying she was not fazed by the leak.
"I kind of thought it might happen," she told Extra at the time.
"I understand completely where it came from. For me, I think they are beautiful. It's not something I'm ashamed of. Everybody should do tasteful beautiful nudes, so when you get older you're gonna be like, 'Oh, that's when my body looked so great!'"
So what's the moral of the story? Think before you strip and click? Share your thoughts below, readers.
Check out the trailer for The Avengers:
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