Chrissy's message captioned a lengthy statement, in which she further denies Michael's claims against her. See it in full below.

Chrissy Teigen very clearly and contritely apologized for insensitive public tweets she made around a decade ago. She did not acknowledge nor apologize for sending private messages directing or encouraging self harm.

Chrissy is completely surprised and disappointed by Michael Costello's recent attack, which includes fictional 'screenshots' from 2014 of supposed private messages that Chrissy did not send. In October 2014, she did post a comment on Mr. Costello's Instagram when he was publicly accused of making a racist remark. After he denied the accusation, and claimed it was based on a photoshopped comment, Chrissy deleted the comment, as was reported at the time. Chrissy has never conspired with anyone to harm his career. The stylist he also attacked in his recent comments was not a part of Chrissy's team until 2016 and did nothing to harm Mr. Costello.

Until Mr. Costello's recent accusations, Chrissy believed she and Mr. Costello had a cordial relationship, as they had friendly online interactions for several years. In one from 2018, he commented on an Instagram story photo and said her lipstick 'looks beautiful.' Another from 2019, said a photo of food 'looks amazing.' On January 28, 2019 he asked her 'Are you going to the Grammys?' Over the years, Chrissy suggested her stylists connect with Mr. Costello for red carpet events, but ultimately other designers' work was chosen. Recently, more claims of Costello's alleged racist comments and treatment have come to light, but Chrissy has only just now learned of them and, until now, thought she and Mr. Costello were on positive terms.

When the supposed screenshots from 2014 were originally circulated last week, the name on Chrissy's account was misspelled. Several media outlets recognized this and chose not to run it, since it was clearly manipulated. This week, the fabricated screenshots were cleaned up with the correct spelling of Chrissy's social media handle; however, they could not actually be from 2014 because they feature elements that were not a part of the Instagram app in 2014. A closer look at the alleged 2014 screenshots plainly shows that they feature her old profile photo that was changed in 2016, alongside a video chat function that Instagram did not launch until 2018. In addition, the alleged 2014 screenshots also include a color format which Instagram launched in 2020. The old profile picture and these new Instagram features could not co-exist in the same authentic screenshot. Recent media investigations have confirmed these inconsistencies as well.

Chrissy has a acknowledged her past behavior and the pain she has caused, but she will not stand for anyone spreading false accusations to further demean her name and reputation. Chrissy will continue to do the work she needs to do to be the best person she can be. She hopes Michael Costello can do the same.

Chrissy has every right to correct the record and defend her name. She is not interested in making Mr. Costello the target of harassment or abuse from anyone claiming to support her. She hopes this can be a time of honest reflection and healing.

Toby Knapp

About Toby Knapp