Fashion designer Michael Costello responded Friday to Chrissy Teigen’s team’s claims that he faked the direct messages he shared along with his accusations of bullying.
Costello previously accused Teigen of bullying him over Instagram direct messages. The fashion designer claimed the messages from the model left him suicidal. However, Teigen’s team claimed the messages Costello shared had “inconsistencies,” according to Business Insider.
SCOOP: A member of Chrissy Teigen’s team told me that her purported DMs to Michael Costello are inauthentic. I found discrepancies in the images that suggest they’re doctored or otherwise manipulated.https://t.co/Sa8EXLZhZ4
— Kat Tenbarge (@kattenbarge) June 18, 2021
“The fact that Chrissy Teigen’s team is desperately trying to prove the DM’s are fake and attempts to discredit Michael Costello, a victim of trauma and bullying by Chrissy Teigen both online and offline, confirms that she remains the same bully, despite her public apology,” Costello’s team said in a statement to Fox News. (RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Allegedly Told Fashion Designer ‘People Like You Deserve To Suffer And Die’)
“When a victim feels like their only recourse is to speak up, and the abuser’s first move is to discredit the victim and shame him publicly, this perpetrates victim-blaming and it costs lives. Seven years ago, when Michael Costello presented Chrissy Teigen with evidence directly that the alleged racist comment she saw was fake, she refused to believe him. Now, her team is quick to discredit Michael’s character in an attempt to salvage her image and partnerships negatively impacted by her decade-long problematic behavior,” his statement continued.
Before Costello’s accusations, Teigen seemingly returned from a social media break to publicly apologize again for her past actions involving cyberbullying. Model Courtney Stodden revealed in May that Teigen had once told her to go kill herself.
“I know I’ve been quiet, and lord knows you don’t want to hear about me, but I want you to know I’ve been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate ‘sit here and think about what you’ve done,'” Teigen wrote. “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.”