Chrissy Teigen has apologised to media personality Courtney Stodden for bullying them online a decade ago.
Courtney, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, became famous as a teenager, after marrying actor Doug Hutchison in 2011, when Courtney was 16 and Doug was 50.
At the time, Chrissy Teigen allegedly bullied Courtney on Twitter and sent them messages urging the model to kill themself.
On Wednesday night, Chrissy – who is married to singer John Legend – publicly apologised and said she is “ashamed and completely embarrassed”.
The 35-year-old tweeted: “Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bullshit in front of the entire world. I’m mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll.
“I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behaviour but that is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel. I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly.
“These were not my only mistakes and surely won’t be my last as hard as I try but god I will try!!”
Chrissy, who recently returned to Twitter after taking a break due to being unable to handle “negativity” on the platform, added: “I have tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all this, I want to also publicly apologise. I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am.
“And I am so sorry I let you guys down. I will forever work on being better than I was 10 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago.”
Courtney later said on Instagram that they accepted Chrissy’s apology, but noted that it may be an attempt at limiting damage to her reputation rather than a sincere attempt to make up for the bullying.
“I accept her apology and forgive her,” they said. “But the truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private. In fact, she blocked me on Twitter.
“All of me wants to believe this is a sincere apology, but it feels like a public attempt to save her partnerships with Target and other brands who are realising her ‘wokeness’ is a broken record.”
Courtney’s divorce from Doug Hutchison, who is best known for playing a sadistic prison officer in 1999 drama The Green Mile, was finalised last year.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, they said other celebrities, including TV host Joy Behar and singer Courtney Love, had also bullied them.
“People came out of the woodwork to beat up on a kid because she was in a situation that she shouldn’t have been in,” Courtney said.
“There were a lot of celebrities acting like playground bullies.”
Useful websites and helplines
Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
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CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.