Courtney Stodden is looking back on their one-time feud with Chrissy Teigen, and it seems the online abuse went much further than anyone knew.
“I think because I experienced so much harassment and bullying from her when I was just 16 years old,” the media personality told The Daily Beast. “At a time when I needed help. Like, I was being abused.
Content warning below // suicide & bullying
Stodden, who identifies as non-binary, alleged that Teigein “sent me so many different tweets, private DMS, up to a couple years ago. Among the bullying they endured, Stodden claims, were private messages from Teigen telling them to “kill myself.”
The bombshell accusation comes directly on the heels of Teigen rejoining Twitter just weeks after deleting her profile as one of the app’s most popular users due to cyberbullying in the wake of her newborn son Jack’s death during delivery.
Scrolling ten years back through the supermodel’s tweets reveals numerous public messages directed at Stodden, including “@CourtneyStodden my Friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. mmmmmm baby,” and “@Courtney Stodden i hate you”. (“Dirt nap” is slang for death.)
However, that’s not all. Stodden also pointed to multiple other celebrities who piled on them during their controversial marriage to actor Doug Hutchison, who was 35 years older than his then-16-year-old bride.
“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,” the model said.
The bullying both online and in the media got so bad that Stodden says it dangerously impacted their mental health: “There have probably been five times that I’ve felt like I wanted to kill myself … and made the actions to go ahead and do it.”
However, these days Stodden is focused on forgiveness… and holding cyberbullies accountable.
“She’s never given me a chance to forgive her,” Stodden concluded regarding Teigen. “And I guess forgiveness, right, starts with ourselves. But it’s so damaging when you have somebody like Chrissy Teigen bullying children. So I definitely think it’s time to speak out. I’m not going after her to bully her, and I don’t think it’s OK that people are bullying Chrissy. But I also don’t think it’s OK to cry wolf either.”
If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1 800-273-TALK (8255).