Chrissy Teigen’s team has addressed the claims made by designer and former Project Runway contestant Michael Costello stating in a new report that screenshots he recently shared are not genuine.
As Business Insider’s Kat Tenbarge reported Thursday, there are “technical inconsistencies” in the purported DM excerpts Costello shared earlier this week. When sharing then, Costello said he was still “traumatized” after receiving a public comment from Teigen on his Instagram page in 2014. Costello said Teigen had accused him of being racist in the comment, which was a response to “a photoshopped comment floating around the internet which has now been proven to be false.”
In the alleged DM screenshots, Teigen was purported to have told Costello his career was “over” and that “racist people like you deserve to suffer and die.”
Per Insider, however, the verified checkmark is missing from next to Teigen’s name in the screenshots. She was verified by early 2015, which would seemingly date the alleged messages to some time in 2014. But the alleged messages also boast purple and blue backgrounds, a design feature that wasn’t put in place until February of last year. Furthermore, the Insider report pointed to the video chat icon (only available after June 2018) and Teigen’s profile picture in the screenshots as additional examples of the screenshots being “temporally inconsistent.”
In his most recent Instagram statement, Costello told his followers he was not going to address “false allegations made by those close to my bullies in an attempt to smear my name.”
Additionally, in a statement to E! News on Friday, a rep for Costello denied the claims from Teigen’s team included in the Insider report.
“The fact that Chrissy Teigen’s team is desperately trying to prove the DMs 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,” the rep said.
Earlier this week, Teigen shared an extended Medium post in which she reflected on what she called “a VERY humbling few weeks.” Teigen also addressed the resurfacing of old tweets, saying she was “truly ashamed of them” and that there was “no excuse” for her behavior.
“My targets didn’t deserve them. No one does,” she said. “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.”
