“I was a troll, full stop.”
Chrissy Teigen has issued another public apology for bullying and trolling people over the internet.
The lengthy apology, published on Medium and screenshotted for Instagram, marks her return to social media following a month of silence amidst accusations of cyberbullying numerous celebrities, some of whom were children at the time.
“Hi all. It has been a VERY humbling few weeks,” the statement begins. “…I’ve been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate ‘sit here and think about what you’ve done’. 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.
“As you know, a bunch of my old awful (awful, awful) tweets resurfaced. I’m truly ashamed of them. As I look at them and understand the hurt they caused, I have to stop and wonder: How could I have done that?
“There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets. My targets didn’t deserve them. No one does. 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.”
Old tweets of the model’s resurfaced last month following an interview with one of her targets, model and TV personality Courtney Stodden. Courtney, who recently came out as non-binary, had revealed Chrissy harassed them both publicly and in private DMs after they married then 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison, when they were just 16.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO65DOuhTcx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
In the interview, Courtney said Chrissy “wouldn’t just publicly tweet about wanting me to take ‘a dirt nap’ but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself. Things like, ‘I can’t wait for you to die.’”
The fallout from the article also prompted other old tweets of Chrissy’s to be circulated. Another now-deleted tweet that allegedly targeted a child, then 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, implied the young actress was bratty during the 2013 Oscars.
“Is it okay to call a small child cocky?” she allegedly tweeted, before adding: “I am forced to like Quvenzhané Wallis because she’s a child right? Okay fine.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/1Ysg1BwkHS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Chrissy’s latest apology continues, “In reality, I was insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted. 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.
“Now, confronted with some of the things that I said, I cringe to my core. I’ll honestly get sharp, stabbing pains in my body, randomly remembering my asshole past, and I deserve it. Words have consequences and there are real people behind the Twitter handles I went after.
“I wasn’t just attacking some random avatar, but hurting young women — some who were still girls — who had feelings. How could I not stop and think of that? Why did I think there was some invisible psycho-celebrity formula that prevents anyone with more followers from experiencing pain? How did I not realize my words were cruel? What gave me the right to say these things?”
This is the second apology Chrissy has issued. Last month, she offered a public apology to Courtney on Twitter, but they revealed the model still has them blocked on the platform.
https://www.instagram.com/p/COyXxWNBqxB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Since the old tweets have resurfaced, Chrissy’s cookware line has been pulled from the Macy’s website. Bloomingdale’s also reportedly pulled out of a deal with the model.
As the second apology goes on, Chrissy says life has made her “more empathetic” and she’s no longer the same person as the one who wrote those tweets. She says she tries to be better every day to be a good role model for her two children, who she shares with husband John Legend.
“John tells me almost every day how much our daughter Luna reminds him of me. Every day, I try to make sure she’s all the best parts of me, all the things I aspire to be all the time, but fail at sometimes. And we preach kindness to her and Miles every chance we get. Will they eventually realize there is some hypocrisy there? I certainly do.”
“But I hope they recognize my evolution. My goal is to be so good that my kids will think this was all a fairy tale. Not the fake good. The good that has the best intentions, the good who wakes up wanting to make her friends, family, her team and fans as happy as possible. The good who will still fuck up in front of the world but rarely, and never not growing only more good from it.”Shortly after the apology was posted, Chrissy shared a picture of a new tattoo she got to keep a butterfly Luna drew on her arm permanently inked. Still in reflective mode, she shared her fears and hopes surrounding them growing up.
“They’re SO young,” the caption said of her kids. “Their eyes are gonna see so much. They’re going to experience pain, hurt, loss. But also love, success, unimaginable bonds with friends. Then I thought about what I’ve learned just in the past few months and I feel a wealth of gratitude for life alone and those unimaginable bonds.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQHyPWtBjZE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The fallout might not be over just yet, as later on Monday evening, fashion designer Michael Costello claimed he too was a victim of alleged bullying from Chrissy.
