Chrissy Teigen: what did model’s Tweets to Courtney Stodden and Michael Costello say - and has she apologised?

Teigen, who is married to singer John Legend, has been accused of being a Twitter troll
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Chrissy Teigen, US model and cookbook author, has responded to accusations of bullying on social media after some of her, now deleted, Tweets resurfaced online.

This is everything you need to know.

Why has she been accused of cyberbullying?

Teigen has responded to the allegations of bullying on social media (Photo: Emma McIntyre/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)Teigen has responded to the allegations of bullying on social media (Photo: Emma McIntyre/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Teigen has responded to the allegations of bullying on social media (Photo: Emma McIntyre/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

American model and TV personality Courtney Stodden revealed their past experiences with Teigen in an interview in the Daily Beast. Stodden rose to prominence in 2011 when, at 16 years old, they married 51 year old actor Doug Hutchison.

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Stodden came out as non-binary earlier this year, and uses they/them pronouns.

Stodden alleged: “[Teigen] wouldn’t just publicly Tweet about wanting me to take a “dirt nap” but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself.

“Things like, “I can’t wait for you to die”.”

Screenshots of some of Teigen’s, now deleted, public Tweets have resurfaced online.

In one, Teigen wrote: “.@CourtneyStodden my Friday fantasy: you. Dirt nap. mmmmmm baby.”

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In another, she retweeted one of Stodden’s posts, writing: “go. to sleep. forever.”

Stodden also appeared in a video online calling Teigen hypocritical for taking a break from Twitter earlier this year due to “bullying and negativity”.

Stodden said: “It was just so hypocritical of her. I think for me, because I experienced so much harassment and bullying from her when I was just 16 years old, just 17 years old, just 18 years old, at a time when I needed help.”

Michael Costello, an American fashion designer and Project Runway contestant, also shared his own experiences with Teigen in an Instagram post.

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Costello wrote: “In 2014, I received a public comment from Chrissy Teigen on my Instagram page, accusing me of being a racist. She apparently formed her own opinion of me based on a photoshopped comment floating around the internet which has now been proven to be false by Instagram and since taken down.

“When I reached out to Chrissy Teigen to communicate that I was the victim of a vindictive cyber slander, and that everything she thought I was is not who I am, she told me that my career was over and that all my doors will be shut from there on.”

He explained that in the following years, he would “book jobs only to be pulled off last minute with no explanation” and said that Teigen has gone out of her way “to threaten people and brands that if they were in any shape or form associated with me” then she wouldn’t work with them.

“So many nights I stayed awake, wanting to kill myself,” Costello revealed in the Instagram post.

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Costello ended the post by writing: “To this day, I still am not able to recover from the years of trauma I have experienced.”

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Has Teigen apologised?

In a Twitter thread posted over the weekend, Teigen acknowledged the situation and issued an apology.

She wrote: “Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bullshit in front of the entire world. I’m mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll.

“I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior but that is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel. I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly.

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“These were not my only mistakes and surely won’t be my last as hard as I try but god I will try!!

“I have tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all this, I want to also publicly apologize. I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am.

“And I am so sorry I let you guys down. I will forever work on being better than I was 10 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago.”

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What was her blog post about?

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Following her Twitter apology, Teigen went on to post a more in depth discussion on her blog on Medium.

The post, the first of the year and second ever on the platform, simply titled “Hi again”, began by saying that Teigen has been “sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment”.

Teigen wrote: “There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets. My targets didn’t deserve them. No one does. Many of them needed empathy, kindness, understanding and support, not my meanness masquerading as a kind of casual, edgy humor.

“I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.”

She explains that when she first started using Twitter, she “was insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted”.

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“If there was a pop culture pile-on, I took to Twitter to try and gain attention and show off what I at the time believed was a crude, clever harmless quip. I thought it made me cool and relatable if I poked fun at celebrities,” Teigen wrote.

In the post, she reflects that those she was attacking online were real people, and that she was “hurting young women - some who were still girls - who had feelings”.

She adds: “I’m telling you this for context, not seeking or deserving any sympathy. There’s no justification for my behavior. I’m not a victim here. The subjects of your sympathy — and mine — should be those I put down.”

Teigen ends the post by writing: “I won’t ask for your forgiveness, only your patience and tolerance. I ask that you allow me, as I promise to allow you, to own past mistakes and be given the opportunity to seek self improvement and change.”

Has Stodden replied to Teigen’s apology?

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Stodden posted a screenshot on Instagram showing that Teigen actually has them blocked on Twitter.

Writing in the caption of the post, they said: “I accept her apology and forgive her. But the truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private.

“In fact, she blocked me on Twitter. All of me wants to believe this is a sincere apology, but it feels like a public attempt to save her partnerships with Target and other brands who are realizing her “wokeness” is a broken record.”

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