Fashion designer Michael Costello made headlines this week when he accused Chrissy Teigen of bullying. But things sort of blew up in his face when fashion photographer Jordan Liberty came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment.
First, the backstory… On Monday, the Project Runway star took to Instagram to share a story about Teigen he says he’s been carrying with him for more than half a decade.
“For the past 7 years, I’ve lived with a deep, unhealed trauma,” he wrote.
Costello alleged that in 2014, Teigen “apparently formed her own opinion of me based on a Photoshopped comment floating around the internet which has now been proven to be false by Instagram and since taken down.”
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When he tried to explain to her that the comment was fake, she refused to listen and “told me that my career was over and that all my doors will be shut from there on.”
Afterwards, Costello says colleagues in the fashion industry told him that Teigen and her stylist, Monica Rose, were going “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.”
Costello also shared screenshots of direct messages allegedly sent by Teigen in which she wrote, “Racist people like you deserve to suffer and die. You might as well be dead. Your career is over, just watch.”
Teigen’s camp says the DMs are fake.
“I wanted to kill myself and I still am traumatized, depressed, and have thoughts of suicide,” Costello said. “I am not okay. I may never be okay. But today, I am choosing to speak my truth.”
Costello was met with an outpouring of support from his 1.5 million followers. Until two days later, when fashion photographer Jordan Liberty entered the chat.
After hearing Costello’s story, Liberty took to Instagram to tell his 290K followers that the “gloves are off” then accused the designer of sexual harassment.
“Michael Costello called out Chrissy Teigen this week for cyber bullying and has everybody pissed at her,” he said in his Instagram stories. “Meanwhile, he sexually harassed me while I was going through chemotherapy.”
According to Liberty, Costello slid into his DMs back in 2017. At the time, Liberty was undergoing treatment for cancer.
The two struck up a friendship and Costello eventually asked if he would like to shoot an upcoming collection he was working on. They agreed to meet up “at some açaí bowl place” to talk about it the next day and then, Liberty says, Costello sent him “a collage of dick pics.”
“Not like one, like a PicStitch of like a bunch of different angles and I’m like, is this guy for real? I’m no prude, but can we just normalize like, if people send you pictures like that without your consent, that should be considered a form of harassment.”
Liberty says he wrote back saying he was “flattered” but that he wanted to “keep things professional.”
That’s when he says the designer got “kind of like weird.” The next day, he changed their meeting time. Then he did it again. And again. When Liberty called to ask if everything was OK, he says Costello unleashed on him, saying “some really horrible things on the phone.”
“He basically, like, was horrifying to me. Hung up the phone. Blocked me. I’ve been blocked ever since.”
“I really truly believe in doing the right thing and speaking up for myself,” Liberty said. “It’s something that I’ve gone through a lot of therapy to do. I’m certainly not a victim of any situation, but these situations need to be called out.”
Costello hasn’t specifically responded to Liberty’s allegations, but he did post a statement saying that his “heart is at peace” and he’s “not going to address any more issues in regards to … false stories from those who aspire to clout chase.”
“I have spoken my truth and I’m going to leave it as is,” he added. “The public can interpret however they like, but you know who I am.”
So how exactly is the public interpreting the whole thing? Let’s have a look…
According to the @BusinessInsider, Chrissy Teigen’s representative claimed that Michael Costello faked the DMs that showed her “bullying” him. Since Costello’s accusation, multiple people have had claims against him for body shaming, sexual harassment and overt sexism. pic.twitter.com/S4hh6UmruI
— Pop Faction (@PopFactions) June 18, 2021
This Michael Costello crap is crazy. I think he prolly is an asshole designer.
— *ching-ching* (@e1diosa) June 17, 2021
Now it makes sense why on his season of project runway a lot of the designers didnt like him
— nancy jo (@diogocherelli) June 18, 2021
Did @mikecostello apologize to Jordan Liberty for sexual harassing him while going thru chemotherapy? Probs not.
— Paul L. Rivera (@paulytotally) June 15, 2021
— Yae (@drkcutie736) June 18, 2021
Michael Costello acusa a Chrissy Telgen de ciberbullying. Leona Lewis acusa a Michael Costello de bullying. Jordan Liberty acaba de acusar a Michael Costello de acoso sexual. pic.twitter.com/advyJJBkD1
— Marilove✨ (@amorosomv) June 16, 2021
That is crazy. Michael Costello wants to blame a 3 sentence DM by Chrissy Teigen for him being suicidal? What were they supposed to believe? Obviously he has issues. And still has issues he needs to work with a therapist, not on social media.
— Laura (@lauras_living) June 15, 2021
Anyone who watched him on project runway knows there’s something off with that guy.
— Lemon_boy (@Lemon_boy89) June 18, 2021
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Mr. Stadnick
Take away from this to me is Fashion people are catty and shallow. Thanks to them for reaffirming the cliché.
ShiningSex
Michael is the poster child for bullying. He’s gross in every way.
ShiningSex
Costello is a piece of sh*t. He bullied so many. You’d think someone that NO ONE liked on project runway would be more compassionate to bullying and then accuses others of bullying when he’s the biggest one of them ALL. Google it. You’ll see the drama that awful excuse of a designer has done.
Go away Michael. No one give two sh*ts about you.
eireapparent
Teigan is C-Grade reality trash anyway.
Troyfight
@eireapparent ….yep – my very FIRST thought. .(…the rest is a mess, too)