Entertainment
Designer Michael Costello slams Chrissy Teigen’s ‘desperate’ claim bullying screenshots are fake
Chrissy Teigen’s team has suggested fashion designer Michael Costello may have edited the screenshots showing her alleged bullying comments – and now the Project Runway star has hit back at the claims.
The 38-year-old designer made headlines earlier this week after he shared messages the Cravings author reportedly sent to him over Instagram years ago, stating her attacks caused him to have suicidal thoughts.
However, Thursday saw Teigen’s team claim that the messages he shared online had been faked, according to Business Insider.
Responding to the claim, a spokesperson for Costello shared a new screenshot and told Metro.co.uk: ‘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.
‘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.’
The statement continued: ‘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.
‘Beyond the DM’s and the public comments Chrissy Teigen left on Michael Costello’s Instagram for the world to see, there are emails and documents unreleased to the public which confirms Chrissy Teigen has gone beyond social media to blacklist Michael Costello offline, making him endure over seven years of suffering – mentally and financially.’
‘Michael Costello is only one of the many victims who are living with long-lasting, unhealed traumas from Chrissy Teigen’s decade-long bullying behavior,’ the statement concluded. ‘Chrissy Teigen’s team has yet to reach out to us, or any of her other victims.’
Teigen, 35, has been at the centre of a trolling scandal after it emerged she had sent horrible messages to socialite Courtney Stodden, who was just 16 at the time.
Costello then came forward with his own allegations against Teigen, who he met years ago, and claimed she tried to sabotage his career believing he’d made a racist slur.
Costello released a statement on Instagram accusing Teigen ‘shut doors’ in his career after believing he had used a racist slur.
He claimed he would ‘regularly get texts and calls from our mutual friends and colleagues’ that Teigen and a stylist friend had ‘gone out of their way to threaten people and brands that if they were in any shape or form associated with me, they would not work with any of them.’
Costello said he spent many nights wanting to kill himself, and last week, ‘wrote personal letters to my family and closest friends because I thought that taking my own life would be the best way out’.
Teigen has not specifically addressed Costello’s claims on her social media, but in an apology shared hours earlier on Medium, the former model said she was ‘sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate “sit here and think about what you’ve done”’.
Shortly after Costello posted his statement, singer Leona Lewis accused him of humiliating her.
The Bleeding Love hitmaker said she was left with ‘years of insecurity’ after Costello allegedly refused to alter a dress from its sample size to fit her.
The singer has since accepted Costello’s apology following his claims he had not been aware of her feelings about working with him.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Chrissy Teigen’s reps for comment.
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