If someone is owed an apology, it’s probably best for the apologizer to do the exact opposite of what Chrissy Teigen just did on Twitter. That is, tweet at Courtney Stodden: “I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am.”
Stodden doesn’t need an apology from Teigen to “heal,” they need a radical shift in the way this society treats people in abusive relationships, especially online.
In an interview with the Daily Beast Monday, Courtney Stodden revealed that Chrissy Teigen “would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself” in 2011, when they were underage and married at 16 to 50-year-old Doug Hutchinson. Other tweets from that year sent from Chrissy Teigen to Stodden, according to screenshots, read: “I hate you,” “go to sleep forever,” “what drug makes you do that with your mouth? asking for a friend who really wants to know how to look like an idiot.” One of the worst? “My friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. mmmmmm baby.”
On Wednesday, days after that story dropped, Teigen finally responded to Stodden with an extensive Twitter thread. It predictably centered Teigen’s own feelings over the then-teenager subjected to her extremely public hatred.
It begins:
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 behavior.
Teigen also mentioned that she is “lucky” to be held accountable, and has “tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all of this, I want to also publicly apologize. I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am.”
The statement rings hollow, mere weeks after Teigen blew up her social media presence, albeit temporarily, claiming the internet was just too toxic to live in. Curious that so soon after, she’d be confronted by her own direct involvement in its toxicity.
Back to Stodden, who should remain the most important member of this newscycle. Teigen’s tweets happened during a time when a then 16-year-old Stodden was brought on Dr. Drew’s show to “check” if their breasts were real. Hutchinson, who Stodden has since called an abusive predator, also roped Stodden into an ABC News interview about their relationship, which they described to the Daily Beast as “traumatizing” and a ploy in his grooming scheme.
The absolute least Teigen could have done was tweet an apology—if the bar for accountability is in hell, she just crab-walked under it.
Some Britney news:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we never saw Denise Richards again.” –Trixie Mattel and Lisa Rinna, somewhere.