Culture

Chrissy Teigen's online controversy with Courtney Stodden explained

Chrissy Teigen wrote an extensive apology on Medium.

Mark Serrels headshot
Mark Serrels
3 min read
Chrissy Teigen has been accused of online bullying. 
Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

After being accused of harassing actor Courtney Stodden, among others, Chrissy Teigen issued a long, detailed apology on Monday for her history of bullying on online platforms such as Twitter.

"There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets," Teigen, a US model and TV actor, wrote on Medium. "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."

The apology came after Teigen put herself on a month-long break from social media in the wake of accusations from model, singer and actor Stodden, who said Teigen sent them abusive messages on Twitter. (In April of this year, Stodden came out as nonbinary. Their pronouns are they/them/theirs.)

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Courtney Stodden came out as non-binary earlier this year.

 Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Stodden said Teigen "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.'"

Stodden accused Teigen of being a hypocrite in March, when Teigen left social media after being bullied herself online.

In May, Teigen apologized to Stodden publicly.

"I have tried to connect with Courtney privately," she tweeted. "I want to also publicly apologize. I'm so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am."

Stodden, however, says Teigen still has them blocked on Twitter.

In Teigen's extended apology on Medium, she states Stodden wasn't the only person she'd trolled online, and she's in the process of reaching out to all the people she "insulted" online.  

"I've apologized publicly to one person," she wrote, "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.

"I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry."

On Monday, fashion designer Michael Costello said he had suicidal thoughts due to alleged bullying by Teigen. 

According to a report by Business Insider, a Chrissy Teigen representative stated the DMs shared in Costello's post were not authentic.

Who is Chrissy Teigen?

Chrissy Teigen is a US-based supermodel and now TV star. She's married to singer-songwriter John Legend and well-known for her social media presence. Most recently she played a small role in the animated Netflix movie The Mitchells vs. The Machines. 

Teigen has had a difficult relationship with Twitter. As recently as March, she said "goodbye" to the platform, citing online negativity.

"My life goal is to make people happy. The pain I feel when I don't is too much for me. I've always been portrayed as the strong clap back girl but I'm just not," she tweeted before deleting the account and all her tweets. She returned to the platform 22 days later.

Who is Courtney Stodden? 

Courtney Stodden is a singer, actor and model who attracted mainstream media attention upon marrying then 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison at the age of 16. It was Hutchison's third marriage. The couple divorced in 2020.  

The relationship was hugely controversial and, as a result Stodden was relentlessly bullied online. Stodden has since spoken out about feeling "groomed" in the relationship with Hutchison and being "completely trapped, manipulated and at times abandoned by adults."

What did Chrissy Teigen tweet?

Most of Teigen's abusive comments toward Stodden have been deleted, but screencaps have been doing the rounds, showing tweets that say things like "go. to sleep. forever." and "I hate you."

Online reaction to Teigen's apology

Stodden hasn't officially responded to Teigen's extensive apology. Stodden's representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment either.

But they did tweet this, a reference to the 2004 movie Mean Girls.

On Twitter, many were cynical about Teigen's apology.

A few of her fans posted supportive messages.

Teigen hasn't posted since tweeting out the apology.