Chrissy Teigen has been no stranger to controversy lately, but when it comes to the latest accusations against her by designer Michael Costello, her reps – and her husband John Legend – are calling foul.
Monday, Costello dropped a bombshell via a lengthy social media post claiming he had “unhealed trauma” due to being mercilessly cyberbullied by Teigen. He then posted what appeared to be screenshots of him pleading for her to leave him alone while she only doubled down on her stance.
But Thursday, in an article published by Business Insider, a team representative for the model countered that the Instagram direct messages Costello claims were sent in 2014 are actually fake.
The outlet then noted that the screenshots provided had some blatant inconsistencies that substantiate speculations that they had been altered.
“In the images Costello posted, the verified checkmark is missing from next to Teigen’s name. Verification was introduced to the platform in late 2014 and Teigen was verified by early 2015, which would seemingly suggest the screenshot was taken in 2014,” began the publication.
But then noted, “the messages in the images have purple and blue backgrounds — a design change that wasn’t implemented until February 2020, at which point the “@chrissyteigen” account was verified. The background color and the lack of verification appear to be temporally inconsistent.”
It’s also noted that although the profile picture is the one Teigen had in 2014 if the screenshot was recently taken, it would should the profile she has now, not the one from back then.
Teigen’s husband Legend also spoke up in her defense, tweeting Friday, “Chrissy apologized for her public tweets, but after her apology, Mr Costello fabricated a DM exchange between them. This exchange was made up, completely fake, never happened.”
He then told everyone to check out the “receipts below” with a link to the Business Insider article.
“Honestly I don’t know why anyone would fake DMs to insert themselves in this narrative, but that’s what happened,” the singer continued. “I encourage everyone who breathlessly spread this lie to keep that same energy when they correct the record”
According to TMZ, Costello doubled down on his claims and shot back that Teigen and her camp’s attempts to discredit him confirm “she remains the same bully.”
Despite the debate about the visual components of this ongoing scandal, the Cravings cookbook author issued yet another mea culpa on Monday via a post on Medium. She once again said she took full responsibility for her history of weaponizing her popularity on social media against people with smaller platforms.
“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 humor. I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.”
“There’s no justification for my behavior. I’m not a victim here. The subjects of your sympathy – and mine – should be those I put down,” Teigen wrote. “The truth is, I’m no longer the person who wrote those horrible things. I grew up, got therapy, got married, had kids, got more therapy, experienced loss and pain, got more therapy and experienced more life. AND GOT MORE THERAPY.”
“Life has made me more empathetic. I’m more understanding of what motivates trolling – the instant gratification that you get from lashing out and clapping back, throwing rocks at someone you think is invincible because they’re famous,” she continued. “Also, I know now how it feels to be on the receiving end of incredible vitriol. Believe me, the irony of this is not lost on me.”
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