Chrissy Teigen apologises for cyber bullying teenage model in 2011 – but people aren’t convinced

Chrissy Teigen has “publicly apologised” to Courtney Stodden after it emerged that she bullied her fellow model when Stodden was just a teen.

Stodden, now 26, who came out as non-binary last month and uses “they/them” pronouns, spoke out about abusive messages Teigen, 35, had sent them in 2011.

In an interview with Daily Beast earlier this week, Stodden said:  “She 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 accusations plunged Teigen into an online storm, prompting her to issue a four part-statement on Wednesday.

It began: “Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bulls*** in front of the entire world. I’m mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll. I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior but that is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel.”

She continued: “I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly. These were not my only mistakes and surely won’t be my last as hard as I try but god I will try!!

“I have tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all this, I want to also publicly apologize. I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am.

“And I am so sorry I let you guys down. I will forever work on being better than I was 10 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago.”

However, the 35-year-old’s claim that she had “tried to connect” with her former victim was undermined in an Instagram post uploaded by Stodden just hours later.

“I accept her apology and forgive her. But the truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private,” Stodden wrote.

They added that Teigen had also blocked them on Twitter, sharing a screenshot as proof.

“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,” Stodden said.

Scores of social media users agreed with their suspicions, including right-wing commentator Candace Owens.

She tweeted:

Owens then shared a screenshot of another offensive comment penned by Teigen in 2011, this one directed at a different celebrity:

Meanwhile, fellow outspoken TV personality Piers Morgan called for the 35-year-old to be “cancelled” as a reult of her actions.

He wrote:

Here’s how other critics responded:

Still, some fans were more forgiving:

Stodden rose to fame aged 16 when they married actor Doug Hutchison who, at 51, was 35 years her senior.

The couple then documented the ups and downs of their relationship via a series of reality TV shows.

In March 2020, Stodden announced they had finalised their divorce from Hutchison who they accused of making them “feel groomed” as a child.

“I’ve been scared to even speak up about feeling groomed or being verbally abused during the almost 10-year marriage because I was a child and he was 50 [sic] when we married,” Stodden posted on Instagram at the time.

The model added that they “felt completely trapped, manipulated and at times abandoned by adults” and had a complicated relationship with their mother, Krista Keller, who had signed off on the marriage owing to her daughter’s age at the time.

Stodden’s allegations against Teigen are the latest twist in the elder model’s complicated relationship with social media.

Most recently, Teigen quit the platform in March, announcing that she was “deeply bruised” from her time online and hadn’t learned how to “block out the negativity.”

The mum-of two returned three weeks later, admitting that she had been bereft without the site.

She may now wish that she had stayed offline.