Yahoo Finance Chrissy Teigen Marks 100 Days of Sobriety and Addresses Bullying Scandal: 'I Feel Clearheaded'
Rich Polk/Getty Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen is speaking about self-reflection after her cyberbullying scandal.
Appearing on the Today show Tuesday morning, the Cravings: All Together author, 35, told host Hoda Kotb that she has emerged a stronger person after taking the time to address her past behavior. Earlier this year, Teigen was called out for her past social media posts, which she admitted were "horrible" in an essay for Medium, where she apologized amid the controversy.
"Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I haven't felt the crushing weight of regret for the things I've said in the past," she wrote at the time. "There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets. My targets didn't deserve them. No one does. Many of them needed empathy, kindness, understanding and support, not my meanness masquerading as a kind of casual, edgy humor. I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry."
In reflection, Teigen said on Today, "Having this period of time to digest it all and to look back and to realize that honestly there is always so much time to grow and to learn and to become more empathetic. I look at my kids and I look at what I want their value to be and how I want them to treat people, and to see that in myself, that I wasn't doing that was — the hardest part for me was realizing, 'My goodness, this really had an affect on people.' "
"I think about how much I've changed just in the past year, how much I've grown and learned, and then to think of that in the term of a lifetime, how much room there is to always know more and be better," she added.
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“Truly it made me a stronger person, a better person.”@chrissyteigen opens up to @hodakotb about apologizing for the allegations of cyberbullying against her and reveals she has been sober for 100 days. pic.twitter.com/eBWUI8Dywk
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 26, 2021
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Speaking about losing TV gigs and brand partnerships in the immediate wake of the scandal, the model said, "You learn so much in the moments where you do lose so much. Your world is kinda turned upside down."
"For me it was a big moment of like, 'Wow, I need to find out how I can be better, how I can grow from this, learn from this. There's that old cliché of 'I'm glad it happened,' but truly it made me a stronger person. A better person. That's when I went sober, I went clean — I'm actually 100 days sober today and I'm, like, so excited, yeah. I feel so good. I feel clearheaded."
"I feel like I've done the work, and I hope these people can forgive and be able to welcome the fact that hopefully they've seen me be better," said Teigen.
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Teigen shares son Miles, 3, and daughter Luna, 5, with husband John Legend. In her June essay, she shared what she wants her kids to learn from her public apology.
"John tells me almost every day how much our daughter Luna reminds him of me. Every day, I try to make sure she's all the best parts of me, all the things I aspire to be all the time, but fail at sometimes," wrote Teigen at the time. "And we preach kindness to her and Miles every chance we get. Will they eventually realize there is some hypocrisy there? I certainly do. But I hope they recognize my evolution."
"My goal is to be so good that my kids will think this was all a fairy tale," she continued. "Not the fake good. The good that has the best intentions, the good who wakes up wanting to make her friends, family, her team and fans as happy as possible. The good who will still f--- up in front of the world but rarely, and never not growing only more good from it."
Teigen added, "I'm going to keep working to be the best version of myself for EVERYONE. Everyone deserves better — even my detractors. And better is what you can expect from me. The world needs more kindness and love and I want to contribute to it. I've been on a path of self-improvement for the past decade and that path is going to continue."
