How do you get from there to someone thinking they can get $4.5M as an extortion payoff?
Why not just ignore the blackmailer?
A few years back, I was an alternate juror on a criminal trial - an adult male was charged with having sexual contact with an underage female. Both parties agreed that the unfortunate gentleman did NOT know the young lady was a minor: she had repeatedly told him she was an adult student at the college campus where they met.
Both parties also offered similar descriptions of the gentleman's reaction, when the young lady finally admitted she was a juvenile, and still attending the local high school: he jumped to his feet, and ran from the residence, literally screaming in terror. He was nevertheless being prosecuted by the State for sexual contact with a minor.
I am quite certain that defendent was not the first - or the last - man to have unknowingly had a relationship with an underage female. And given that even obvious and undeniable ignorance is apparently no defence in a court of law, any such relationship (or even an unsubstantiated claim regarding such a relationship) might be a useful tool to a blackmailer or extortionist...