Chrissy Teigen apologizes to Courtney Stodden for cyberbullying: 'I am ashamed'

Chrissy Teigen publicly apologized to Courtney Stodden for bullying them as a teenager. The mea culpa comes after Stodden, who identifies as nonbinary, claimed Teigen sent direct messages a decade ago urging them to take their own life.

"Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bull***t in front of the entire world. I'm mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll," Teigen tweeted on Wednesday. "I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior 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!!"

Teigen said she tried to reach out to Courtney privately, but knows they are owed a public apology "since I publicly fueled all this."

"I'm so sorry, Courtney," the model wrote. "I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am... I will forever work on being better than I was 10 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago."

Stodden became tabloid fodder in 2011 for marrying The Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison at age 16. (He was 50.) They divorced last year with Stodden calling out how they were "groomed" to be a child bride. In an interview with The Daily Beast published Monday, the reality TV star opened up about the abuse they experienced not just from Hutchison, but also from the media and other celebrities. Teigen was among the famous people called out.

"She wouldn't just publicly tweet about wanting me to take 'a dirt nap' but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself," Stodden, 26, claimed. "Things like, 'I can’t wait for you to die.' And not only her, but Joy Behar had a field day with calling me a 'slut.' Courtney Love told me I was a 'whore.' 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. There were a lot of celebrities acting like playground bullies. Some of the worst treatment I got was from women, and we're not going to get anywhere if we keep holding each other back."

While the direct messages from Teigen, 35, have yet to be verified, old tweets were unearthed showing the Sports Illustrated model cyberbullying Stodden — including the "dirt nap" message referenced above.

Teigen has been a victim of bullying herself on the social media platform, temporarily quitting Twitter due to harassment in March. Stodden made a video at the time calling Teigen a hypocrite.

Stodden said they accept Teigen's apology, but noted, "The truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private." They included a screenshot showing they remained blocked on Twitter by Teigen.

"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 realizing her 'wokeness' is a broken record," Stodden said.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 12 at 3:42 PM ET and has been updated to note Stodden's response.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

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