Another person has come forward to share his story about being victimized by Chrissy Teigen’s alleged online bullying.
Designer and former Project Runway contestant Michael Costello took to Instagram on Monday, revealing how his past interactions with Teigen led to “thoughts of suicide” for years after their encounter. Costello also said that Teigen and stylist Monica Rose negatively impacted his career by telling brands and people that they wouldn’t work with them if they worked with Costello, which led to him being blacklisted.
According to Costello, the situation took off after an unhappy employee photoshopped a comment that showed the designer using a racial slur. Instagram ultimately removed the image.
But Costello has still been dealing with “deep, unhealed trauma” since interacting with Teigen back in 2014. “So many nights I stayed awake, wanting to kill myself,” he wrote. “I didn’t see the point of living. There was no way I can ever escape from being the target of the powerful elites in Hollywood, who actually do have powers to close doors with a single text.”
Costello also posted alleged screenshots of his IG DMs with Teigen, where he was begging her to call him. She refused, and instead ridiculed him, writing, “No! I do not have anything to say to you. You will get what’s coming to you.” She continued, “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”
Costello said that last week, he penned letters to his family and friends while still contemplating suicide, but has instead decided to “speak my truth.”
Costello’s accusations arrived on the same day that Teigen wrote a long apology on Medium for her behavior on social media, writing, “I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.” The letter came after Teigen delivered a personal apology via Twitter to model and TV personality Courtney Stodden, who said that Teigen told them to kill themselves years ago when they were a teen.
“There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets,” Teigen wrote. “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.”
Following the allegations, Teigen also decided to step away from her voiceover role for Season 2 of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.
