Chrissy Teigen apologises to Courtney Stodden for online bullying

Chrissy Teigen has apologised to TV personality Courtney Stodden for bullying them online a decade ago (Ian West/PA)

Chrissy Teigen has apologised to TV personality Courtney Stodden for bullying them online a decade ago.

Stodden, who uses they/them pronouns, became famous as the 16-year-old bride of actor Doug Hutchison, who was 50 when they tied the knot in 2011.

Teigen allegedly bullied Stodden on Twitter at the time and sent them messages urging the model to kill themselves.

Teigen, wife of singer John Legend, has now 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!!”

Teigen, 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.”

Stodden, 26, accepted the apology but said it may be an attempt at limiting damage to Teigen’s reputation rather than a sincere attempt to make up for the bullying.

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“I accept her apology and forgive her,” Stodden 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.”

Stodden’s divorce from 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, Stodden said other celebrities, including TV host Joy Behar and singer Courtney Love, 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,” Stodden said. “There were a lot of celebrities acting like playground bullies.”