You know what I’ve been thinking about for the past few days? Why did Chrissy Teigen write the second apology on Medium this week? It had not even been a month since her first apology, regarding the Courtney Stodden situation. Teigen was losing sponsors, of course, and she was losing money. But the second apology had the feel of someone trying to get out ahead of something else, and it also had the feel of Chrissy just… being desperate for attention. Shortly after Teigen’s Medium post, fashion designer Michael Costello told his story on Instagram. His story: Teigen and her friends blacklisted him from the industry, destroyed his professional life and nearly drove him to suicide. As evidence, he posted screencaps of DMs between himself and Teigen.
In the days that followed, we learned that Costello is probably a racist and a gaslighter and there’s enough evidence to suggest that his story was pretty incomplete. But still, he had those DMs from Teigen, right? Well…
Chrissy Teigen’s team is addressing the bullying allegations recently made by fashion designer Michael Costello against the star. In an article published by Business Insider on Thursday, a team representative for Teigen, 35, claimed the purported Instagram direct messages from the Cravings cookbook author in 2014 – which Costello, 38, posted earlier this week alongside accusations of bullying – are fake.
As the outlet noted, the screenshots showed several temporal inconsistencies that may suggest they had been altered in some way. Examples include a missing verified checkmark next to Teigen’s name – which would suggest the screenshots were taken in 2014, before Instagram’s verification program had launched – in the same screengrab featuring purple and blue messages, a design implemented by the social media platform in 2020.
The screenshots also showed a video chat icon – something that was introduced on Instagram in 2018 – alongside a profile photo that Teigen had changed no later than 2016, according to Business Insider. A representative for Costello did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
I have zero technical expertise with Instagram or IG direct messaging so I won’t speak to that, I’ll just say that from everything we’ve heard about Chrissy Teigen, she sounds like the kind of person who would DM a fashion designer and tell him he should die. So if Costello did fake those messages, he really got her “voice” down cold. Costello already seems problematic, but guess what? Chrissy Teigen is massively problematic too. You can choose to not support either of them. I have a terrible feeling that Teigen is already making her first steps for some kind of “comeback.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Whatever the truth to this, it’s just the kind of ammunition teigen’s supporters need. She’ll do an interview in a few weeks time sobbing and playing the victim and she’ll be back flogging nappies and people fawning over her ‘humour’ in no time. URGH.
I think the language he uses is wrong. It doesn’t sound like her ‘voice’ to me.
Bad as she is I think he has the rage at her for backing someone he was reportedly racist to. He waited until the time was right and tried to sink her
His insta and voice are wrong
She and her managers need to shut it. And keep it shut. Whether one of her targets is problematic or not her tweets are reprehensible. It’s a pattern with her, not a single incident. She needs a lockdown style rehab.
Exactly. And it’s not even a pattern with a handful of other celebs. There’s a long trail of every day people she’s gone after too who will never have their stories get media attention.
Exactly. The only way to handle it is to go silent for a long, long time. But she’s like Hillary Baldwin, a social media addict.
This. If I never see her again, it will be too soon. I wonder how many people did she tell to kill themselves? And there’s always a punching down aspect
This move by her manager says it all. Teigen has no remorse.
CT and her enabling clown posse need to shut it and sit down
She’s only making it worse contributing like this.
Still waiting for her apology for Quvenzhané Wallis.
She will never give a meaningful and timely apology to any of her victims. Wallis got off light because even Chrissy knows you shouldn’t tell people to kill themselves and telling that to a 9 year old being celebrated by the industry would ruin her. But a 16 year old being trafficked, kept sedated on drugs, having her body augmented to suit her 51 year old Alcoholic and abusive husband… that’s fair game.
Probably a racist and a gaslighter? On what grounds? Where are the receipts on that? Leona Lewis’ accusation? When he has emails of her asking him to dress her less than a month ago? It’s QUITE an accusation to say that he is racist and a gaslighter, so it should probably have some evidence. Can we agree on that, given that these messages involve people feeling suicidal?
evidence is a designer he got in a fight with after calling her racist names. You can find that when searching his past incidences.
Yeah, Leona Lewis’ story doesn’t make sense. If a designer had treated me so badly I would not allow my publicist or stylist to reach out to that designer again. Ever. Also: why is she getting involved?
I think Teigen called and paid Lewis to speak about and play up that awkward incident. Just my theory. Because even if Costello had been mean to me (which is not bullying) I would not want any part of Teigen’s mess.
Leona Lewis is friendly with Tiegen. That’s probably part of why she got involved. The other part being she saw someone get positive coverage that was awful to her at a charity event and wanted people to know.
The issue with her timing was it served more as defense of Chrissy. And highlighted she continued to work with MC even though there are enough designers you’d never have to repeat using one that treated you terribly.
And still, none of what Chrissy’s publicist/manager or Leona are negating Chrissy harasses her victims publicly, professionally and privately and encourages them to kill themselves.
Also, Stodden has carried herself gracefully throughout this. I think she’s really on that path to healing. Even without that private, sincere apology or closure from Chrissy.
QUEEN MEGHAN’S HAND
You just accused a black woman of receiving bribe to defame someone with no evidence to support your claim, hmmmmmm
Wiglet, Stodden uses They/Them pronouns.
The Cut has the receipts. Google his name and the Cut and you can read the article for yourself.
Even if the instagram comment to Maxine James was fake, Maxine James confirmed a year after the fact they had another altercation where he called her the n word to her face, while breaking her phone. Thus guy is also alleged to have sexually harassed a makeup artist going through chemo and, apparently according to Chrissy’s team, faked some of the images he used in his takedown of Chrissy (lord knows why, the text messages were enough).
Chrissy is problematic no doubt, but this guy is just clout chasing, imho.
There’s articles dating back to 2014 and 2017 outlining his repeated racist behaviors and they involved others besides Lewis. This guy is problematic and so is Teigen.
I have certainly heard accounts from people here in socal that made me have what is in my opinion a very negative view of MC. I absolutely can’t stand CT, but if I, a person who is only tangentially connected to the world of media and the glamour industries, possibly heard about many of these issues and more, then in my opinion this pattern existed long before this current news cycle. In my estimation, he made a huge mistake piping up during this CT scandal.
No remorse, and she is trying to make herself the victim so people give her another chance instead of stepping back, taking responsibility for her actions and seeking help.
Has she had fillers done? I don’t remember her cheeks being so…whatever that is.
Yeah they look almost painful!
How can that possibly be the face of a successful model? The distortion is disturbing.
Maggi
You can auto tune a face beyond recognition these days so how you look irl doesn’t matter. And she was beautiful in an exotic/unconventional way during her swimsuit days. But none of it matters now because she married a very wealthy and respected musician. Without him, she would not be where she is.
thanks Wiglet Watcher, I have mostly dropped out of modern life and live in the woods so your explanation helps me to get a handle on what I see.
Auto-tune a face?
Either I’ve lost the thread or society has.
Amazing take on a post about cyberbullying. :-/
This site is called celebitchy for a reason 🙂 Half the posts are criticising Kate’s Botox, the rear ends and faces of the Kardashians etc.
@Karla I know right?
You could call it a post about cyber bullying but at the end of the day it’s still a gossip site. I think we all know that going in.
omg stop. she asked a question. look up the definition of cyberbullying. Then look up discernment and critical thinking.
Just go away Chrissy.
Yes, just go away!! No one cares what you think!! You have dug yourself into this grave and you can stay there!! No one cares!!!
Right! There are no perfect victims. People can be problematic and still be victims of bullying. Her PR people need to take a seat.
Yes. It’s astounding that they’re doing this instead of just backing down and apologizing. She clearly is not learning any lessons.
This…this is just going to keep going, right? Like, we are never hearing the end of this mess, are we?
At this point, if I never have to hear about this contemptible woman ever again, it will be too soon.
Why didn’t she deny the screenshots the day Michael posted them? Make it make sense.
It doesn’t matter what he’s said and done – she has told multiple people to kill themselves, in some form or another, and verbally attacked children. She needs to just step away from public life right now and do some serious work on herself.
Let’s be serious. He needs to go away too. He keeps saying he has proof but won’t show the receipts and has just bowed out saying he won’t post about it again. He’s ALWAYS been sketchy. NOBODY liked the guy on Project Runway – he’s manipulative and always always always painted himself a victim to gain sympathy. This has been going on for yeaaarrrsss. Chrissy did absolutely abhorrent things. MC did different abhorrent things. Just because Chrissy is terrible doesn’t mean he gets a pass on his terribleness.
This! Let not excuse his long history of bad behavior just because she too has a long history of bad behavior.
Chrissy has a lot of problems to deal with but this guy is not someone worth defending, especially if he’s making stuff up. This will be moving into lawsuit territory if this keeps up. I don’t know how people even take the time to fake messages. This is so messy. Something probably did go down between these two but seems someone is capitalizing on events as well. This particular incident may be more of a bitch fight than bullying. A hot mess and takes focus off Teigen’s truly awful past behavior.
Yeah, I agree. Chrissy needs to go away, but let’s be clear on something.
We just spent four years getting gaslit by racists who tried turning the tables on POC every damn day.
So, I for one am not about to take the word of a racist, who is not the only person seeking to jump on the Dump Teigen bandwagon. Candace Owens, for example, all of a sudden couldn’t wait to decrying bullying when she herself has been a SM bully. Cancel Teigen for her tweets against Stodden and Wallis and keep them in your thoughts for healing. But don’t give a moment’s thought to POS like Michael Costello and the whole MAGA crew.
Yeah I agree. I see Stodden and Wallis as the victims here. That’s where Teigen to me showed herself for what she is. This guy, no. And don’t get me started on Candace Owens. I do enjoy watching Cardi B give her what she comes looking for though. lol
This!
Tiegen is trying to change the narrative. Attacking MC and erasing Wallis and Stodden is all she can hope for to save herself.
She has still yet to apologize directly to Stodden for the YEARS of directly encouraging her to kill herself while Stodden was being abused in all forms by everyone around her.
@Wiglet Watcher:
Teigen isn’t trying to change the narrative. She’s pointing out that Costello is a liar.
Others have been trying to get him to comment about the problems with the screenshots, but he won’t comment on it to anyone but Fox News.
Because he’s a liar who is only trying to appeal to the racist MAGA crowd.
https://twitter.com/kattenbarge/status/1405935039322406915
And Teigen’s people have every right to point that out.
Cosign. This dude is trash. This is low-key (and loud AF) MAGA trying to come for Chrissy and taking oxygen from actual wrongdoing to Stodden and Wallis and Abraham.
Missmaritose
So why is Tiegen coming after this guy and speaking out about this guy, but can’t privately apologize to Stodden and Wallis?
Because talking about MC and discrediting MC is an easy fix to those claims she is a bully.
I’m not defending that guy. I’m saying Tiegen is latching onto this to change the topic and I guess for some it’s working because here we are talking about this guy vs. all the years and multiple child victims of hers.
@ Wiglet Watcher ..where is the focus being taken off of CT?
Missmarirose, maybe Chrissy isn’t the person who needs to be bringing it up and trying to get him to comment though. Especially if other people have already pointed out that there might be something fishy going on with his screen shots. If that conversation is already being had and that information is already out there, then it just seems like by commenting herself (or through her people), Chrissy is trying to move the overall conversation away from the awful things that she has said and done and instead focus all the attention on Michael Costello. She’s trying to amplify that part of the conversation surrounding her so that people won’t talk about/think about all the other problematic stuff we’ve learned about her. It makes it seem like she’s still living very much online all the time, monitoring how her scandal is going down as opposed to actually working on herself or doing the work she said she was going to do to apologize privately to people she hurt, keeping track of who is saying what about her and looking for ways to fight back against them and continue her feuds, and still mostly thinking about how to minimize/defend/justify her past and find some kind of loophole that will allow her to sneak back in through the back door and claim her spot back as Queen of Twitter and beloved social media personality. If she’s spending her time and energy on trying to discredit certain specific accusations/accusers rather than taking responsibility for the things she did do, then she’s still not really getting it.
Purplehaze
Easy. We are talking about MC now. Someone that claimed Chrissy attacked them. Someone being attacked and discredited by Chrissy and by her story and friend of Chrissy Leona Lewis. To discredit one victim can be a slippery slope to discrediting all or enough to be forgiven.
And don’t misunderstand me. I believe Leona. I also believe the timing and association to Chrissy is suspicious.
But for certain Stodden never got a private apology and will not any time soon. Same for Wallis.
+1. The MAGA crowd, as well as the enabling libertarians and others who participants/stans of the Lessons being Taught through the public’s abuse of Courtney Stodden for years.
I think its time for all this near 40 adults to get off social media and do this immature arguing in private. This an embarrassing mess. I dont think this is a “nobody’s perfect” situation anymore, its a straight up “everybody is sh!tty situation”. The best thing they can all do for themselves is to get off social media
this ^
Yep. I avoid cyber drama like the plague. I learned very early on, circa 2000 on the old political message boards aol and netscape had then. I only had to learn once.
Two a-holes of a kind. You’d think they would be friends with such a common mindset.
She still told him he’d be better off dead, I don’t care how problematic he might be. Her saying that still makes her a c*nt
But even if you take MC totally out of the equation, WE KNOW she told Courtney to kill herself repeatedly over YEARS
She told a CHILD who was being mentally and sexually abused and trafficked by her parents and “husband” to KILL herself
I hate that this MC controversy is distracting from that.
CT is a horrible person and deserves everything bad and more that is happening to her.
I’m sure there are others she has done this to
Exactly. Courtney seems like they are in a great place and I admire them for coming out of their situation seemingly mentally well balanced. I don’t know if I would have survived the shit they went thru. Especially being told to kill myself multiple times. What if they had followed thru? I’m not a big fan of cancel culture. I believe redemption is possible for everyone. But CT is too much of a narcissist. I don’t think she’ll ever truly understand the damage she’s done.
crap I used the wrong pronouns for Courtney and I can’t edit it
It’s okay! I’m still learning too. My friend’s daughter uses they/them pronouns and we were just talking about forgetting sometimes. It’s a process and your comment is fine.
I wonder if Chrissy’s strategy is to make her other victims too scared to speak out. The people she bullied were already problematic or being picked on by others right? She didn’t go after Courtney because everyone now recognizes they were a victim, but when MC spoke up, suddenly people are bringing up negative things he’s done and now her manager is picking apart MC’s evidence.
Yup, willow. And can I just say, this is giving me trigger feelings of rape culture? Oh yeah, but she was drunk and passed out so she deserved it…
Shudder.
Other people, including the designer he got in a fight with and called racist slurs, brought up this guys racism and crap behavior, and started dropping receipts. Of course Teigen is going to capitalize on it but it won’t make people forget how nasty she is.
And? All that shows is that they are BOTH terrible people.
Costello and Chrissy(now she has her manager and John fighting her battles) both need to be quiet. They are both bullies who play the victim and got away with their bad behaviors towards others for a very long time. Does Chrissy think that proving Costello wrong justifies what she did to Stodden and Wallis?
classic manipulation. triangulation. it’s what narcissists do.
She won’t hold herself accountable even privately it seems so who knows if there’s hope for her
It seems like they are all crappy people for different reasons. Everyone should just be kinder to each other.
Omfg stop
“This guy totally sucks too!” is NOT a defense for your own bullying behavior. SMDH
Sure, inconsistencies in Michael Costello dm are the problem. I will actively boycott this witch.
I mean those ARE a problem. She deserves to be called out for every awful thing she’s done. But if he’s faking messages he’s taking away from the ACTUAL victims and using it to promote himself. The guy has always been super toxic. It is not giving Chrissy a pass to call out other people’s awful behavior, and if he’s lying we shouldn’t just be okay with that because everyone hates CT.
^^^^this
Agreed Erinn.
Looking at the dm’s a second time; they DO have the color scheme of the latest updates, not from years ago. That is suspect to me. The DM’s. I don’t know about any of the other stuff. And I’m supportive of Courtney.
This all just makes me sad. Who knows what the truth is. Both seem problematic af, and equally guilty of being awful people. Why is it so hard to be good, decent, and kind to one another these days?
Honest question having not followed her career – Are those cheeks all fillers?
It’s not okay to lie or troll. CT may have done the latter but this guy appears to have done the former. At least Chrissy has apologized? If he continues she should sue for slander.
That said, this is all exhausting and I have little patience with any of it.
I hope we never hear from this woman again. She is just as bad as Trump in my eyes; two sides of the same coin.
I unfollowed her today because she made a swipe at him. If she was remorseful , she’d keep her mouth shut. She’s learned NOTHING.