Chrissy Teigen returned to Twitter earlier this week with a lengthy message of self-flagellation after she was publicly denounced as a troll.
The model had been silent on the platform since non-binary TV star Courtney Stodden, 26, accused her of bullying them when they were just a teen.
On Monday, Teigen, 35, published a blog post admitting that she’d been “sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment,” adding: “Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I haven’t felt the crushing weight of regret for the things I’ve said in the past”.
The mum-of-two, who is married to award-winning singer John Legend, wrote she is in the process of contacting people she had targeted online – but didn’t specify who.
So what do we know about the accusations against her? And how have people responded to her declarations of remorse? Here’s a full overview of the controversy to date.
Courtney Stodden tweets – 2011
Last month, Stodden spoke out about abusive messages Teigen had sent them a decade ago.
The model and reality television personality became famous as the 16-year-old bride of actor Doug Hutchison, who was 50 when they married in 2011.
Teigen allegedly harassed Stodden on Twitter at the time, both publicly and via private message, sending them dark and threatening notes.
The now 26-year-old told an interview with Daily Beast: “She 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.”
Teigen’s response – May 2021
The accusations plunged Teigen into an online storm, prompting her to issue a four part-statement on May 12.
It began: “Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bulls*** 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.”
She continued: “I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly. 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.”
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.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 12, 2021
Stodden’s riposte
Teigen’s claim that she had “tried to connect” with her former victim was undermined in an Instagram post uploaded by Stodden just hours after the 35-year-old shared her grovelling statement.
“I accept her apology and forgive her. But the truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private,” Stodden wrote.
They added that Teigen had also blocked them on Twitter, sharing a screenshot as proof.
“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,” Stodden said.
Public outcry and axed deals
Scores of social media users agreed with Stodden’s suspicions that Teigen’s statement was more self-interested than sincere.
The 35-year-old swiftly attracted criticism for her older tweets, including a 2011 post mocking Lindsay Lohan’s issues with self-harming and a 2013 message branding ‘Teen Mom’ star Farrah Abraham a “whore”.
Chrissy Teigen is sorry to be losing endorsement deals and is now trying to masquerade her old tweets as "trolling", ill let the people decide whether this is trolling.
— Byron Leftwich (@byron_leftwich) June 15, 2021
Directed at Lindsay Lohan during the lowest point in her life: pic.twitter.com/EoHqHyKTH6
The unearthing of these cyber attacks led to Teigen’s Cravings cookware line — which she proudly promoted to her millions of followers — being pulled from Macy’s department store.
The 35-year-old also left a voiceover role on Netflix comedy ‘Never Have I Ever’, and retreated from social media.
Teigen’s fresh apology – June 2021
Breaking her silence with the new blog post, shared to publishing platform Medium, the Teigen described her old tweets as “awful, awful” and said she was “truly ashamed” of them.
“There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets. My targets didn’t deserve them. No one does,” she wrote.
“Many of them needed empathy, kindness, understanding and support, not my meanness masquerading as a kind of casual, edgy humour.
“I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.”
Teigen admitted that her actions were prompted by a quest for validation, writing: “In reality, I was insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted.
“If there was a pop culture pile-on, I took to Twitter to try to 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.
“Now, confronted with some of the things that I said, I cringe to my core.”
Teigen, who was widely praised last year for sharing stark pictures of the loss of her third child, said she is no longer the person who posted nasty social media messages.
“I grew up, got therapy, got married, had kids, got more therapy, experienced loss and pain, got more therapy and experienced more life,” she added.
And she said she hopes her children – daughter Luna, five, and three-year-old son Miles – will “recognise my evolution”.
Teigen added: “My goal is to be so good that my kids will think this was all a fairy tale. Not the fake good. The good that has the best intentions, the good who wakes up wanting to make her friends, family, her team and fans as happy as possible.”
Hi again https://t.co/vtAHcVLWNA
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 14, 2021
How people have reacted this time round
Both of Teigen’s apologies have proved divisive, since while scores of commentators have condemned them as little more than PR stunts, others have insisted that everyone has the ability to change and should be able to seek forgiveness.
Right-wing pundit Candace Owens is one of her fiercest critics. Here’s what she had to say in the wake of the model’s latest statement:
The problem with #chrissyteigen’s diatribe is that she’s apologizing for who she was “a long time ago”.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 14, 2021
Let’s be clear—
Chrissy spent the last 6 years online harassing conservative women who DID NOTHING to her.
This wasn’t some off-colored period of her life.
It’s who she is.
FYI— someone on Chrissy Teigen’s team is deleting negative comments under her Instagram account to create the illusion that the world is forgiving her.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 14, 2021
This is little more than a carefully crafted Hollywood PR stunt.
She’s still a malignant sociopathic narcissist.
Teigen has also allegedly been blacklisted from arguably the most high profile guest list in the country:
Biden Admin has taken Chrissy Teigen off the list of celebrities to be invited for parties or PSA opportunities, per WH official
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) June 15, 2021
Here’s how other sceptics have responded:
I really think you owe that young girl more than an apology. She says you really traumatized her. I think you should offer to compensate her. Her therapy, medical bills and loss of career through anxiety deserve something concrete, in my opinion.
— Louise Mensch, M.A. (@LouiseMensch) June 14, 2021
You explicitly and repeatedly encouraged a child to kill themselves. That’s not “snark,” that’s just pure evil. This is just another transparent attempt to salvage your career.
— Matt Crump (@crump) June 14, 2021
We have all done mean/hurtful things at some point- I get it. However, not once have I ever told someone to kill themselves. Its sick and twisted and went far beyond bullying. At this point she is just trying to save her financial ventures. #chrissyteigen https://t.co/H0yss1M4gp
— Rose (@tropicalrosie) June 14, 2021
However, plenty of fans have come out in force to defend the Hollywood star:
One of the best apologies I’ve seen. There was no “but”, no excuses. Flat out owned it. I know society likes to ruin people for mistakes or past bad behavior but there should be room for growth and room for forgiveness
— Maxine McCann (@maximccan) June 14, 2021
This is as genuine an apology as one can give. @chrissyteigen does not deserve to live in worldwide contempt. I find both apologizes & forgiveness refreshing. Holding on to hate is exhausting.
— Kassi with a K (JoyousWarrior) (@joyouswarrior) June 14, 2021
So thank you Chrissy.
Heaven forbid that any of us have never said mean or terrible things in our lives.
— Shanna McKay (@AstroShanna) June 14, 2021
Stones in glass houses folks?
It's good to sit with our mistakes and learn from them, and apologize. It's how we grow, and hopefully become better people.
Sending you love and support.
Chrissy. I’m sorry about what you are going through. I can imagine the amount of shame and regret you are feeling. I hope that you can find peace in knowing that you’ve learned and grown from this. I’ve said and done some awful things in the past but I’m a different person now.
— Stephanie Buck-Lake (@stephlarae92) June 14, 2021
Honestly let‘s go dig up the old tweets of EVERYONE public figure or not. That would be nasty. Chrissy‘s behavior was unacceptable but I think it‘s fair to say she has grown a lot. I‘m willing to give her a chance to prove that to me.
— StillHelen (@missmindful90) June 14, 2021
New accusations – Michael Costello
The saga is far from over for Teigen as, no sooner had she published her latest apology, fresh allegations emerged.
This time they came from designer Michael Costello, 38, who opened up about feeling “traumatised, depressed” and having “thoughts of suicide” after alleged bullying by the model.
“For the past seven years, I’ve lived with a deep, unhealed trauma,” the 38-year-old wrote in an Instagram post, admitting that he was scared of sharing his experience with anyone for fear of a backlash from “the power elites who run the industry”.
Costello referenced an alleged 2014 comment in which Teigen had branded him “racist” for using the n-word.“
“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,” he said.
“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 also claimed that for the next few years, he was pulled off jobs at the last minute and had mutual friends telling him that Teigen and her stylist Monica Rose are going “out of their way to threaten people and brands that if they were in any shape or form associated with me, they would not work with any of them”.
The designer admitted that the fallout had left him “wanting to kill” himself, adding: “I didn’t see the point of living.”
“There was no way I can ever escape from being the target of the powerful elites in Hollywood, who actually do have the powers to close doors with a single text,” he continued.
“Not only was I the target of cyber defamation, but I was also getting blocklisted in real life.”
The 38-year-old’s post also featured apparent screengrabs of his past conversations with Teigen.
In one message, she wrote: “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”
But Teigen fired back and threatened to take legal action, accusing him of sharing faked messages. The cookbook author, 35, said she will donate any damages to an anti-bullying charity.
She wrote: “No idea what the f*** michael costello is doing. He just released a statement where he didn’t at ALL acknowledge how fake the dm’s were, & now claims to have emails that don’t exist.”
She added: “Please do NOT bully this man under the masquerade of defending me. I’ve taken it ALL. I’ve heard it all. I just beg for you to know the truth.
“Michael, you are now causing actual pain to people who are trying to better themselves. Enough. Or this WILL go further. Not here, but an actual court of law.
“And every dime we win will go to an anti bullying charity focused on turning this shit show into a positive. I wish you peace and healing. I have some places I’ve been attending if you’d like the connects.”
Costello fired back on his Instagram page and said Teigen is “the same bully she always has been, despite her fake apology to the public”.
In what he said will be his last statement on the controversy before taking a break from social media, he wrote: “I’ll say this again. Chrissy Teigen has gone out of her way to close doors to my career by making calls, sending texts, telling colleagues and companies that if I were attached to a project that she would not work with them.
“I have receipts of emails and confirmations from these individuals and companies.”
Teigen’s husband, the chart-topping singer John Legend, defended her on Twitter and said the exchange Costello shared was “completely fake”.
A statement from Teigen’s representatives added: “Chrissy is completely surprised and disappointed by Michael Costello’s recent attack, which includes fictional ‘screenshots’ from 2014 of supposed private messages that Chrissy did not send.
“In October 2014, she did post a comment on Mr. Costello’s Instagram when he was publicly accused of making a racist remark. After he denied the accusation, and claimed it was based on a photoshopped comment, Chrissy deleted the comment, as was reported at the time.
“Chrissy has acknowledged her past behaviour and the pain she has caused, but she will not stand for anyone spreading false accusations to further demean her name and reputation.
“Chrissy will continue to do the work she needs to do to be the best person she can be. She hopes Michael Costello can do the same.”
You can find helpful tips on how to start a conversation, or if you are worried about someone else, on Samaritans website.
You can contact the Samaritans helpline by calling 116 123.
The helpline is free and open 24 hours a day every day of the year. You can also contact Samaritans by emailing jo@samaritans.org. The average response time is 24 hours.
