Chrissy Teigen apologizes again for bullying Courtney Stodden 10 years ago
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Model Chrissy Teigen is publicly apologizing for her abusive Twitter trolling from a decade ago that left another celeb deeply wounded.
Last month, Courtney Stodden (who first made headlines in 2011 by marrying then-50-year-old The Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison at the age of 16), revealed in a Daily Beast interview that Chrissy Teigen bullied them on Twitter, telling them to take their own life. Stodden, who is non-binary, had the receipts to go with it, too.
Now, Teigen, who only recently returned to Twitter after a mental health hiatus, has published a lengthy apology on Medium.
"I know I've been quiet, and lord knows you don't want to hear about me, but I want you to know I've been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate 'sit here and think about what you've done,'" Teigen wrote. "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."
Some of the “things” she has said in the past, as detailed in The Cut, include telling Stodden to take a “dirt nap” which is understood to be a call for Stodden to kill themself. Teigen also tweeted at Stodden, "go. To sleep. Forever." Stodden went on record that the bullying affected their mental health and they considered suicide.
Stodden and Hutchinson’s high profile marriage was 2011 gossip fodder, so much so they even appeared together on UK reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 in an effort to defend their union; a union which Stodden now says involved grooming and that they were “absolutely taken advantage of” by the much older Hutchinson.
Teigen’s Medium apology continued, "As you know, a bunch of my old awful (awful, awful) tweets resurfaced."
"I'm truly ashamed of them," she added. "As I look at them and understand the hurt they caused, I have to stop and wonder: How could I have done that?"
"In reality, I was insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted," Teigen wrote. "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."
“I was a troll, full stop," Teigen said. "And I am so sorry."
This is Chrissy's second public apology for her behaviour towards Stodden. On May 12, she released a similar statement in a Twitter thread.
That apology, according to Stodden, should be taken with a grain of salt, as they posted on Instagram that the apology came with Teigen blocking them.
“I accept her apology and forgive her,” Stodden wrote in the caption, “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.”
Macy's pulled Teigen's Cravings products from digital shelves after the bullying came to light (Target also pulled her items but said in a statement the decision was made before the Stodden news). Stodden has not publically responded to the second apology at time of press.
Hours after the Medium post went public, fashion designer and former Project Runway contestant Michael Costello took to Instagram to detail how Teigen bullied him and tried to blacklist him from the fashion industry.
Costello says, in 2014, Teigen worked to convince brands and stylists not to work with him after a fake racist comment attributed to him (which was proven to be photoshopped and removed by Instagram) went viral. He explains that Teigen initially called him racist for the comment, and when he reached out to her with details on the situation, she told him his career was over. He includes screenshots of messages sent between him and Chrissy in his post.
He goes on to explain how for the next several years he suffered both professionally and mentally because of the actions taken by Teigen. Even as recently as last week, he says, he contemplated taking his own life.
Teigen has not responded to Costello's accusations at this time.
BEFORE YOU GO: Chrissy Teigen says goodbye to Twitter for good
[video_embed id='2167772']BEFORE YOU GO: Chrissy Teigen says goodbye to Twitter for good[/video_embed]
