Chrissy Teigen's rep suggests Michael Costello shared fake screenshots of alleged bullying

Chrissy Teigen's team has addressed the bullying allegations made by fashion designer Michael Costello against the Cravings cookbook author.

In an article published by Business Insider on Thursday, one of Teigen's team representatives claimed that the Instagram direct messages that Costello shared earlier this week are fake.

Costello shared messages that were allegedly from a conversation he and Teigen had in 2014. In the shared messages, Teigen allegedly said: “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”

The outlet noted that the screenshots showed inconsistencies that may suggest that they have been altered.

Examples of the aesthetic inconsistencies include the missing verified checkmark next to Teigen's name. The outlet also notes that the messages in the images have purple and blue backgrounds, which is a design change that wasn't implemented until February 2020, at which time the @chrissyteigen account was verified.

The images also have a video chat icon at the top, but video chat wasn't introduced to Instagram until June 2018. 

Another example comes from Teigen's Instagram profile picture. Her profile picture in the screenshot is the same profile picture she had in 2014 but she changed her picture around December 2016. A screenshot taken after 2016 would have shown her current profile picture.

In another turn of events, Costello declined to comment for the Business Insider article. 

Costello said that Teigen had attempted to "ruin his career" after she accused him of "being racist" from a "Photoshopped comment floating around the internet." But designer Maxie James claimed that the comment was actually about her. Scroll down to read Maxie J's accusations against Costello.

On Thursday, Costello said that he was "not going to address any more issues in regards to false statements proven to be false, false stories from those who aspire to clout chase, and false allegations made by those close to my bullies in an attempt to smear my name."

JUNE 16: Leona Lewis and designer Michael Costello have entered the Chrissy Teigen bullying drama

Hours after Chrissy Teigen released a lengthy note about her abusive Twitter trolling from a decade ago that left Courtney Stodden deeply wounded, fashion designer Michael Costello came forward with new bullying allegations.

Costello opened up about his interactions with Teigen on Instagram Tuesday and said that he is still "traumatized, depressed and has thoughts of suicide" following Teigen's alleged attempt to ruin his career.

“For the past 7 years, I’ve lived with a deep, unhealed trauma,” Costello wrote. “In 2014, I received a public comment from Chrissy Teigen on my Instagram page, accusing me of being 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."

Costello said that when he reached out to 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," Teigen allegedly told him that his career was over and "all [his] doors will be shut from there on." 

The designer claimed that he was fired from jobs "with no explanation" and heard that Teigen and her stylist friend Monica Rose had "gone 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."

Costello alleged that he "pleaded with Chrissy Teigen or Monica Rose to see the whole story before believing a false narrative a former disgruntled employee cast upon me."

He went on to say that he still struggles with his mental health as a result of Teigen's alleged actions.

“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 wrote. “Not only was I the target of cyber defamation, I was also getting blocklisted [sic] in real life.”

The Project Runway alum shared messages between him and Teigen in which the cookbook author allegedly said: “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”

Once Costello began making headlines for his Instagram posts, he released a statement.

“I want to be clear – I do not wish ill on anyone. We are all works in progress and we deserve the opportunity to prove that we can do better. But progress takes time. We must show through actions that we have changed. After all, actions speak much louder than a 10 minute apology written on a notepad," Costello wrote.

"However, nothing takes away from the years of trauma being bullied and blacklisted in the industry has left me. I am not out for revenge. I only wish to speak my truth because I have been silenced for so long.”

He said that he's "still waiting for Chrissy Teigen and anyone who bullied me to reach out to me."

"If they truly acknowledge that their actions are wrong, I welcome them with open arms to have a real conversation," he added.

Leona Lewis' accusations against Michael Costello

After Costello had shared his allegations against Teigen, singer Leona Lewis joined the chat to accuse the designer himself of "humiliating" her in 2014.

In a series of Instagram stories, Lewis said that Costello left her "embarrassed and deeply hurt" after an encounter in 2014, which led to "years of insecurity" and has impacted her "personally and professionally."

“I was asked to take part in a fashion show to raise money for charity. Michael Costello was assigned as my designer,” she wrote. “As an excited young woman, I flew all the way to New York and was honoured to work with him because I adored his dresses.”

“When I got to the fitting, I was made to feel very awkward and uncomfortable as the dress was a sample size and he/his team clearly did not want to alter it to fit me. This came as a total surprise because weeks prior I was told that they would make the dress work for me,” she alleged.

The "Bleeding Love" singer claimed that Costello "refused to turn up" to the next fitting and left her "with no explanation at all."

“He no longer wanted to dress me and he abandoned his commitments to me and the show, which made me well aware that I wasn’t the body type required,” she wrote.

Lewis said she was "embarrassed and deeply hurt" because she didn't "look like a model size" so she was "not permitted to walk in his dress."

"I had to sit in the audience and was asked by press why I didn’t walk in the show. I remember having to come up with excuses as I was so humiliated by it all. I feel like I was made to look as though I pulled out and was being difficult, and as an [effect] of those actions, I suffered a lot, both personally and professionally."

"The most hurtful thing was that it was to raise money for charity, and this went against everything we were trying to do,” she continued.

Lewis said she was left with "deep insecurities" after her experience with Costello and she's had to "work hard over the years to love my body."

"I'm not discounting Michael's experience as that is an awful thing to go through and I wish him so much love and healing," the British star shared.

"I'm sure this will come as a shock as I never told him how this made me feel. But the pot calling the kettle black in this situation doesn't sit right with me. Bullying comes in many different forms. We need love, we need accountability, we need forgiveness, none of us are perfect."

Michael Costello's response to Leona Lewis' accusations

Following the singer's accusations, Costello took to his Instagram Stories with screenshots of the singer wearing his designs and shared an alleged email exchange between her stylist and himself, in which they requested a piece for her American Idol finale performance in May.

"If I made you feel bad in 2014 but you still wore my dresses and request them, can we try and figure out what got lost in translation with the dress you wore," Costello wrote. "You looked so beautiful in it."

In a statement to Page Six, Costello said, “I have always been a fan of Leona Lewis and she has always adored me. Her team has continuously requested for her to wear us from 2013 up until now."

He added, “It’s bizarre how her attitude towards me shifted as soon as I spoke my truth in regards to Chrissy Teigen and others trying to blacklist me.”

Costello claims that the mishap between himself and Lewis was due to time constraints rather than refusing to work with her.

He added that he was "very excited" to be asked to dress Lewis for the Heart Truth Red Dress Collection show, which was scheduled one day before his own fashion show. 

“Coincidentally I had prepared to show a collection of red silhouettes so I thought it would be ideal to lend her one of my showpieces all for charity and then have it returned just in time for my show,” he said in the statement.

He said that none of the red options worked for Lewis and there was no way for him to make an alternative option at the time.

“If we had known about the event more than 7 days in advance, which is the timeframe we had, we could have made something custom for Leona without a doubt,” he said.

“It was nothing personal towards Leona. The plan simply did not work out the way we intended. I have always offered to make something custom and special just for her. I am always here for her,” Costello added.

Designer Maxie James' accusations against Michael Costello

Fashion designer Maxie James' joined the conversation and claimed that Costello called her a racial slur.  

“Michael Costello got the nerve to be playing [the] victim of being bullied, but called his self bullying 7 years ago, and called me a ‘Black N***** B*tch’ in a fabric store downtown 🤔. He had the wrong one tho cus I most certainly whooped hi a*s, almost went to jail too. Thank GOD for his mercy cause I certainly LOST IT 🤯 . I never experienced racism before 🤷🏾‍♀️. All I knew to do was FIGHT 🤷🏾‍♀️," Maxie J wrote on Instagram.

In a June 16 live stream interview with The Jasmine Brand, James claimed Teigen was just "defending" herself and denied Costello's claims of his racist comment being "photoshopped." She said that lie was created by his "PR team spinning it around."

James claimed the incident started when she first got into the fashion industry and Costello bought one of her dresses from her website for $200 to only turn around and resell it on his platform as his own design for $1000.

"I emailed him, no answer. I DM’d him, no answer. So I’m like, my little platform, no one’s gonna believe me, you know, like, I’m new! But I’m like, let me just post it to my little following. At the time I had like 5,000 followers. And I’m like, ‘Let me just post it to my following, at least so my friends and my supporters know that I didn’t steal this from him,’" James explained.

She continued: "So, I posted his receipt of him purchasing the dress from me, I posted the picture of him reposting the dress on his Instagram, and I just put my phone down and left. Went to go cry, feel bad for myself, and I just started hearing my phone, like, dinging out of control. … That whole little PicCollage thing went viral.”

She said that Costello was allegedly "going off on people in the comments of the PicCollage" that she posted. 

"That is when he was like, ‘Oh, you’re defending that Black…’ you know, ‘blah blah blah.’ So that’s where it started from,” James added.

James said a year later she went to the fabric store and that's when she saw him and used the racial slur to attempt to insult her to her face after alleging she tried to "sabotage" his business.

"I’m like, ‘Sabotage YOUR business? You stole MY dress.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait, what did you just say to me?’ … And he takes my phone out of my hand and throws it, and it shatters. Oh, I lose my mind. … I’m not really like, the proudest on how I reacted, but I also don’t take it back... [We] fought — literally, like back in the day like I was in high school... The police came, and since I had witnesses, the owner of the store gave his statement, he was like ‘Yeah, he definitely abused her first, like verbally, he broke her phone, he definitely called her the n-word, I got all that on video," James said during the live stream.

Costello has not addressed Maxie James' claims as of this writing.