Project Runway Star Michael Costello Was Suicidal Over Chrissy Teigen’s Alleged Bullying
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Project Runway star Michael Costello says he had thoughts of suicide following Chrissy Teigen’s alleged bullying and efforts to destroy his career.
The designer posted a statement on his Instagram account accusing Teigen of getting him blacklisted in the fashion industry over a misunderstanding.
“I didn’t want to do this, but I can not be happy until I speak my mind,” he wrote in the caption. “I need to heal and in order for me to do that, I must reveal what I’ve been going through. I wanted to kill myself and I still am traumatized, depressed, and have thoughts of suicide.”
Costello explained that in 2014 he was the victim of an online hoax by a “former disgruntled employee,” who falsely attributed racist comments to him. He added that the post “has now been proven to be false by Instagram and since taken down.”
Teigen, he said, publicly accused him of being racist via Twitter at the time. When he reached out privately to try and explain the mixup, Costello said “she told me my career was over and all my doors will be shut from thereon. And boy, did she live up to her words.”
Costello claimed that over the next few years, he was pulled off jobs “with no explanation” and received calls from mutual friends and colleagues that Teigen and her 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.”
He continued, “Each time I have pleaded with Chrissy Teigen or Monica Rose to see the whole story before believing a false narrative a former disgruntled employee cast upon me, they didn’t give me the time of day.”
Costello posted screenshots purportedly showing a direct message thread with Teigen in which she claimed, “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”
Costello went on to say he ended up writing personal letters to family and friends in preparation for a suicide attempt.
“So many nights I stayed awake, wanting to kill myself. I didn’t see the point of living,” he added. “I wish no harm on anyone and I don’t wanna go back-and-forth fighting with anyone. I just want people to realize that I, too, am human and this was the most inhuman treatment to ever be endured by someone who has seen their decades of hard work, years of building a brand, crumbled from one comment.”
Costello concluded, “I am not okay. I may never be okay, but today, I am choosing to speak my truth.”
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Costello’s comments come one day after Teigen wrote a Medium post apologizing for bullying reality star Courtney Stodden and other public figures.
Stodden, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, said in an interview last month that Teigen had sent them private DM’s “tell[ing] me to kill myself.”
Shortly after the interview made headlines, Teigen apologized on Twitter for years of cyberbullying Stodden, who the model had mocked for marrying a 51-year-old man at the age of 16.
