Orlando Bloom opens up about viral X-rated paddleboarding photo

Discussing the photos, Orlando Bloom modestly told Howard Stern: 'Things are expanded on cameras with a big optical lens. It's an optical illusion'. Photo / Getty Images

Orlando Bloom has spoken out about the naked paddleboarding photos that went viral back in 2016.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star, 42, was cruising around the Mediterranean off the coast of Sardinia with now-fiancée Katy Perry, 34, when paparazzi caught him in a very, uh, free moment.

In a new interview on The Howard Stern Show, the host congratulated Bloom on his impressive "equipment" — one of the major talking points once the pictures went viral.

"It is really not that big. Things are expanded on cameras with a big optical lens. It's an optical illusion," the actor insisted, before admitting he'd have covered himself up had he known he was being watched.

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry were engaged to be married earlier this year. Photo / Getty Images

"First, there's the photo with the block over it, and you make some jokes, 'Well, I hope they've got a black box big enough to cover it'," he said.

"Then suddenly you realise somebody's going to uncover the black box because they're going to get paid enough money. So it was like a triple whammy. Photos, black box, no black box."

Bloom first addressed the famous photos in a 2017 interview with Elle UK, during which he explained that he'd been convinced he and Perry had been completely alone.

"I have been photographed a million times in a million ways. I have a good radar," he said.

"We'd been completely alone for five days. Nothing around us. There was no way anyone could get anything. So I had a moment of feeling free."

The celebrity couple in 2016, when the nude incident took place. Perry said Bloom asked her if she'd like to be naked too but she demurred as she wasn't 'in the mood'. Photo / Getty Images

Meanwhile, Perry — who was seen nonchalantly perched on the board in front of her nude partner in the photos — opened up about the incident in an interview on The Kyle and Jackie O Show that same year.

"He asked me if I wanted to be (naked) and I was just like, it's one of those things where I was like, 'Oh, nah'. Just not in the mood," she told the hosts.