Chrissy Teigen

In 2016, journalist Taylor Ferber wrote an article for VH1 titled “Chrissy Teigen Is Twitter’s Biggest Hypocrite” that accused Teigen of bullying. 

According to Ferber, “I had watched as she went on a Twitter tirade against random people she thought were trolling her, retaliating with unnecessary name-calling – and more bullying.”

In response, Teigen defended herself on Twitter and attacked VH1 for publishing the article. VH1 later took down the piece. 

In 2017, celebrity gossip blogger Nicki Swift published a video on her YouTube channel titled “Shady Things About Chrissy Teigen Everyone Just Ignores.”

In the video, Swift highlighted several of Teigen’s controversial tweets, including those targeting “Teen Mom” star Farrah Abraham, comedian Jay Mohr, and child actor Quvenzhané Wallis. 

In 2018, many of Teigen’s offensive tweets from prior years were unearthed and Twitter users began posting tweet compilations tagged with #ChrissyTeigenIsOverParty.

In March of 2021, Chrissy Teigen announced she would be leaving Twitter due to negativity. In response, media personality Courtney Stodden posted a screenshot of an old tweet from Teigen making fun of Stodden’s Facebook account being shut down. 

Stodden captioned the post: "What a shame @chrissyteigen is leaving Twitter ... it’s too 'negative' for herrrrrr #chrissyteigen #bully"

Two weeks after Stodden’s post, Stodden, who identifies as nonbinary, appeared in a video on TMZ, accusing Teigen of being a hypocrite and sharing more details about the hurtful tweets and DMs Teigen began sending them when they were 16 years old: 

“It really affected me. The bottom line is I never had a chance to forgive her. She’s never given me a chance to forgive her. It’s so damaging when you have somebody like Chrissy Teigen bullying children...I think it’s time to speak out. I’m not going after her to bully her and I don't think it’s okay that people are bullying Chrissy. But I also don’t think it’s okay to cry wolf either.”

Stodden said Teigen’s bullying began at an age when they needed help and were being abused. At the time, Stodden was in the spotlight for marrying actor Doug Hutchison, a man 35 years their senior. 

Teigen’s tweets to Stodden included messages such as:

–“my Friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. dmmmmm baby.”

– “go. to. sleep. Forever.”

– “i hate you.” 

After Stodden’s accusations against Teigen, more of Teigen’s offensive tweets began to surface in May 2021, including a tweet about actress Lindsay Lohan who has struggled with self-harm: “Lindsay adds a few more slits to her wrists when she sees emma stone.”

In response to the tweet, Lindsay’s mother, Dina Lohan, issued a statement to Fox News: 

"As a single mother of four children I have raised them to be kind, humble and non-judgmental. That being said, I will not judge her words towards others but I stand firm in one looking into oneself and continue to learn and grow #ownyou."

In May of 2021, Teigen tweeted a statement publicly apologizing to Stodden and to fans for letting them down. 

In regards to her past behavior, Teigen described herself as “an insecure, attention seeking troll” and stated that she “tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all this, I want to also publicly apologize.”

After Teigen’s public apology, Stodden responded by posting on Instagram a screenshot showing that Teigen had blocked them on Twitter, with the caption:

“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.”

In May of 2021, reality TV star Farrah Abraham spoke to Fox News about Teigen. In 2013, Teigen had attacked Abraham in a tweet: “farrah abraham now thinks she is pregnant from her sex tape. In other news you’re a whore and everyone hates you whoops not other news sorry”

Abraham told Fox News that Teigen is “just highly disturbing to me,” and said, “She does not need to target young women or other people. I hope she gets mental help and therapy ... No woman should be treating other women like that."

In June of 2021, Teigen posted an article on Medium, apologizing and taking responsibility for her behavior, saying “I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.”

She stated that she was making private apologies: “I’ve apologized publicly to one person, but there are others — and more than just a few — who I need to say I’m sorry to. I’m in the process of privately reaching out to the people I insulted.”

In closing she asked that her audience give her the opportunity to change: “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.”

After Teigen posted her lengthy apology on Medium, fashion designer and “Project Runway” alum Michael Costello posted on Instagram claiming Teigen had bullied him through DMs in 2014 and threatened his career. He wrote: “I wanted to kill myself and I still am traumatized, depressed, and have thoughts of suicide.”

Costello shared screenshots of DMs from Teigen:

However, Teigen responded that Costello’s accusations were false and the DMs he shared were fake.

Teigen’s husband John Legend weighed in, sharing an article from Business Insider that debunked Costello’s DMs.

Costello’s team then denied Teigen’s allegations in a statement to E! News:

“The fact that Chrissy Teigen’s team is desperately trying to prove the DM’s are fake and attempts to discredit Michael Costello, a victim of trauma and bullying by Chrissy Teigen both online and offline, confirms that she remains the same bully, despite her public apology.”

In July of 2021, Teigen posted on Instagram saying she missed communicating with her fans and expressing feelings of depression over being cancelled:

“...just feels so weird to pretend nothing happened in this online world but feel like utter shit in real life...I feel lost and need to find my place again, I need to snap out of this, I desperately wanna communicate with you guys instead of pretending everything is okay...Cancel club is a fascinating thing and I have learned a whollllle lot...If you or someone you know has also been cancelled please let me know if there is a cancel club reunion because I could use some time off my couch!”