Chrissy Teigen and John Legend push designer Michael Costello to 'admit' he faked the DMs that showed her bullying him

• Chrissy Teigen called DMs shared by Michael Costello "fake" in a statement posted to Twitter.
• Her statement comes a day after Insider reported the DMs appeared to be manipulated.
• Costello recently accused Teigen of bullying him, using DMs he claimed were from the model as proof.

Chrissy Teigen ripped into Michael Costello over the DMs he recently shared, calling them "fake" and accusing him of not owning up to it. Costello used the DMs to claim she had bullied him in the past.

Her statement, posted to Twitter, came a day after Insider's Kat Tenbarge reported the DMs appeared to be manipulated due to technical inconsistencies in the Instagram visuals and features.

"No idea what the f--- michael costello is doing. He just released a statement where he didn't at ALL acknowledge how fake the dm's were, & now claims to have emails that don't exist," Teigen wrote on Friday, along with screenshots of the statement.

"Chrissy is completely surprised and disappointed by Michael Costello's recent attack, which includes fictional 'screenshots' from 2014 of supposed private messages that Chrissy did not send," the statement read in part.

The statement went on to acknowledge that Teigen did leave a comment on Costello's Instagram in 2014 after he was "accused of making a racist remark," but that she deleted it after Costello denied the accusation.

But according to the statement, Teigen and Costello maintained a "cordial relationship" online "for several years," with the model believing she and the "Project Runway" star were on "positive terms" up until Costello's accusations against her went public.

Teigen's statement also said that there were several inconsistencies in the screenshots shared by Costello that purport to show Teigen bullying him - including a misspelling of Teigen's account name, Instagram features and color schemes that were only recently made available, and conflicting profile pictures.

"Chrissy has acknowledged her past behavior and the pain she has caused, but she will not stand for anyone spreading false accusations to further demean her name and reputation," the statement said.

It concluded by saying that Teigen is "not interested" in making Costello a "target of harassment," and that she "hopes this can be a time of honest reflection and healing."

Teigen's husband and musician John Legend also denounced Costello's accusations in a series of replies to the fashion designer's latest tweet.

"Bruh. Stop. You know you made all this up. Please just stop," Legend tweeted at Costello, urging him to "admit" the DMs "were fake."

When reached for comment by Insider, a representative for Costello shared a statement from the designer.

"The fact that Chrissy Teigen and her crisis team are working so hard, so strategically to come out against the DM's she sent me, and to downplay the comments she publicly posted on my Instagram, only proves that she is the same bully she always has been, despite her fake apology to the public," Costello said.

The statement reiterated the accusations Costello previously leveled against Teigen and said the entire situation has been "like a nightmare."

"I spoke the truth and I have nothing left to say and nothing left in me to keep fighting against her," Costello said. He concluded his statement by revealing he was going to take a break from social media for his mental health.

The controversy began when Costello posted screenshots of DMs that he said were from Teigen to his Instagram page on June 14. Screenshots of the purported conversation appear to show the model bullying Costello over a "racist" comment he made and encouraging him to self-harm. Costello also said the "racist" comment was photoshopped and deemed fake by Instagram.

But while some news outlets reported on Costello's post, Insider's Kat Tenbarge found technical inconsistencies in the purported DMs that suggest they are manipulated.

The inconsistencies found by Insider include a video chat icon at the top of the image, even though video chat wasn't introduced to Instagram until June 2018, as well as message background colors that would conflict with updates made to the app in the years since 2014.

Teigen has recently come under fire for past comments she made, including a 2011 tweet that told then 17-year-old Courtney Stodden to take a "dirt nap." The model has since apologized for the "awful" old tweets.