An ex-candidate for Virginia state legislature whose online sex videos with her husband sparked uproar when they were leaked has been arrested on a domestic violence charge — but she says the story is not so simple.

Susanna Gibson Payne, 42, was arrested in Henrico County on Sept. 22 for “assault and battery – family member.” She was released after turning herself in.

But Payne told The Post that her lawyer husband, 44-year-old John David Gibson, has been harassing her since she filed for divorce last year, and claimed he was the one who got aggressive with her during a squabble back in June.

“After my estranged husband, arrested three times since I filed for divorce, assaulted me during a June 2025 custody exchange while I protected our son, he filed a retaliatory criminal complaint against me,” Payne said.

“More than three months later, police issued a misdemeanor warrant for my arrest. I turned myself in immediately,” she added.

Her husband disagreed with that story, however, telling The Post he never hurt his wife.

“I adamantly deny any claim that I got physically ‘aggressive’ much less assaulted Susanna during the June incident. The police from my understanding determined the same,” he said.

Gibson also claims he never asked police to press any charges against his wife, but that investigators decided to pursue a case months after the June altercation.

“There was no retaliation – I don’t even know what I would be retaliating against,” he said.

The couple seem to have been having trouble since last year, beginning when Gibson was arrested in December for violation of a protective order and use of threatening language.

Those arrests happened just days after a preliminary protective order was requested against him, records show.

Gibson said those arrests largely stemmed from a heated argument he got into with his wife’s new boyfriend, which escalated into him firing off aggressive text messages – actions he says he now regrets.

“I was never arrested, much less convicted of a protective order violation involving Susanna.  I have never been charged with any crime against her,” he said.

His estranged wife was a competitive Democratic underdog on track to snatch a Richmond delegate seat in Virginia’s 2023 state race when Republican operatives leaked her online sex shows to the media.

The couple had recorded X-rated videos with each other on the livestreaming porn platform Chaturbate, which were archived offsite without their knowing and then leaked.

They were also accused of shooting the videos for pay from viewers — a violation of Chaturbate’s platform — a charge the couple vehemently denied.

Payne was undeterred by the scandal, however, and pressed on with her campaign.

“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she said in the thick of the scandal, arguing that the leak had violated Virginia revenge porn laws and was a form of sexual abuse.

“My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up,” she added.

Payne ended up losing the race, but by less than 1,000 votes.

She’s since dedicated herself to advocating against “gender-based and sexual violence” with the founding of MyOwn Image, an organization which seeks to update online privacy legislation. Payne believes laws have not kept pace with the digital age.

“I would say I’ve fundamentally changed as a human, as a professional,” she told Politico after the scandal. “A political operative found sexually explicit videos of a young woman running for office that she never knew existed … and shopped them around to various news outlets, trying to get them published to humiliate, intimidate, coerce, harass this woman.”

Payne doubled down on her stance that the justice system needs overhaul as news of her September arrest emerged.

“Survivors deserve a justice system that recognizes abuse dynamics and protects our safety, not one that allows abusers to weaponize the law as continued control,” she said. “I’m a mother and domestic violence survivor navigating a system that too often punishes those who seek safety.”