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Designer Michael Costello Reveals Bullying From Chrissy Teigen, Just Hours After Her Public Apology

Yet another victim of Chrissy Teigen, fashion designer Michael Costello, has come forward with his experience of bullying and blacklisting.

By Paula Gallagher3 min read
Designer Michael Costello Reveals Bullying From Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen's Public Apology

Yesterday, Chrissy Teigen published a public apology and explanation on her Medium page. She writes, “I want you to know I’ve been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate ‘sit here and think about what you’ve done’. Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I haven’t felt the crushing weight of regret for the things I’ve said in the past.”

She continues, “As you know, a bunch of my old awful (awful, awful) tweets resurfaced. I’m truly ashamed of them. As I look at them and understand the hurt they caused, I have to stop and wonder: How could I have done that?”

Teigen claims she has reached out to those she has bullied in the past to apologize: “I understand that they may not want to speak to me. I don’t think I’d like to speak to me. (The real truth in all of this is how much I actually cannot take confrontation.) But if they do, I am here and I will listen to what they have to say, while apologizing through sobs.”

“I want you to know I’ve been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment."

She calls herself a “troll,” before saying she “wants to go a little further” and explain her behavior “for context, not seeking or deserving any sympathy.” She said she was  “insecure, immature and in a world where I thought I needed to impress strangers to be accepted” and that she “thought it made me cool and relatable if I poked fun at celebrities.”

Chrissy ends her apology, writing, “The truth is, I’m no longer the person who wrote those horrible things...Life has made me more empathetic.” She adds, “I won’t ask for your forgiveness, only your patience and tolerance. I ask that you allow me, as I promise to allow you, to own past mistakes and be given the opportunity to seek self improvement and change.”

Michael Costello Reveals How Chrissy Teigen Bullied Him

Just hours after Chrissy Teigen published her apology, yet another victim of her bullying, fashion designer Michael Costello, came forward on Instagram with his experience.

Costello, a Project Runway star who has dressed celebs like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Celine Dion, shared his story of how he came to be blacklisted and bullied by Teigen, resulting in lost work, trauma, and suicidal thoughts.

Costello writes, “For the past 7 years, I’ve lived with a deep, unhealed trauma. I didn’t share this with anyone because I was living in fear. In fear of losing some of my most profitable brand relationships; in fear of losing friends and allies; and in fear of being outcasted even more by the power elites who run the industry.”

He continued, “In 2014, I received a public comment from Chrissy Teigen on my Instagram page, accusing me of being a racist. She apparently formed her own opinion of me based on a photoshopped comment floating around the Internet which has now been proven to be false by Instagram and since taken down. When I reached out to Chrissy Teigen to communicate that I was the victim of a vindictive cyber slander, and that everything she thought I was is not who I am, she told me that my career was over and that all my doors will be shut from there on.”

Costello also shared screenshots of a DM conversation he purportedly had with Teigen.

Costello goes on to say that “Throughout the next few years, I would book jobs only to be pulled off last minute with no explanation.” He claims that Chrissy Teigen and stylist Monica Rose 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.”

As a result, Costello says he has “suffered tremendously the past few years.” He wrote, “So many nights I stayed awake, wanting to kill myself. 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. Not only was I the target of cyber defamation, I was also getting blocklisted in real life.” [sic]

He ends, saying, “To this day, I am still not able to recover from the years of trauma I have experienced. I am not asking for sympathy from you. I am especially not asking for sympathy from Chrissy Teigen, Monica Rose, and those who believe the false narrative they heard about me. I simply want to set myself free.”

Teigen's History of Bullying

Costello is yet another famous figure to reveal bullying and cruelty suffered at the hands of Chrissy Teigen. In May, former model Courtney Stodden detailed how Teigen had told her to commit suicide when she was 16 years old. In 2013, Teigen attacked child actress Quvenzhané Wallis after she won Best Dressed at the Oscars. 

After Stodden exposed Teigen’s bullying, Macy’s dropped Teigen’s cookware line Cravings and Bloomingdale’s reportedly walked away from signing a deal with her. Target coincidentally dropped her line the month before as their contract had recently ended.

Given the financial consequences of her bullying, the length of time Chrissy Teigen has been hurting people, and the way in which she “explained” herself, many question the sincerity of her apology letter.