Entertainment

Chrissy Teigen Breaks Social Media Silence Following Bullying Tweets

by Arielle Tschinkel
Emma McIntyre/Getty

Chrissy Teigen posted a lengthy apology to the “targets” of her “past horrible tweets,” calling herself “a troll, full stop” after the years-old tweets recently resurfaced

Last month, Chrissy Teigen came under fire after Courtney Stodden reminded the world about the many instances of online bullying they’d experienced from Teigen a decade prior. The tweets — including ones aimed at Stodden and other celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Quvenzhané Wallis — had made the internet rounds before, but it was Stodden’s interview with The Daily Beast that bubbled them back up to the surface, with Teigen taking to Twitter to apologize to Stodden for “being an insecure, attention seeking troll.” She also claimed she reached out to Stodden to apologize privately (which Stodden refuted on Instagram), before going dark on social media altogether for a few weeks.

Now, Teigen is back — this time taking to Medium to share a blog post about the situation. She shared she’s been “been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment,” adding, “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.”

Sharing that she’s “in the process of privately reaching out to the people [she] insulted,” she added, “I understand that they may not want to speak to me. I don’t think I’d like to speak to me… But if they do, I am here and I will listen to what they have to say, while apologizing through sobs.”

“There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets,” she continued. “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.”

She added that she “thought it made [her] cool and relatable if [she] poked fun at celebrities.” Acknowledging that “there are real people behind the Twitter handles [she] went after,” she notes, “How did I not realize my words were cruel? What gave me the right to say these things?”

Teigen explains that she’s “no longer the person who wrote those horrible things,” adding that she has since gone to therapy, gotten married, had kids, “experienced loss and pain and experienced more life,” which has made her “more empathetic.”

“Also, I know now how it feels to be on the receiving end of incredible vitriol,” she continued. “Believe me, the irony of this is not lost on me.”

Going forward, the mom shared that she’s “going to keep working to be the best version of [herself] for EVERYONE,” including her “detractors.”

“I won’t ask for your forgiveness, only your patience and tolerance,” she concluded. “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.” She ended by thanking readers for listening, writing, “We are all more than our worst moments.”