After the food columnist verbally bashed Teigen and Kondo during an interview with 'New Consumer,' heated words were exchanged online.
Food critic Alison Roman has apologized to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo following controversial comments she made about the pair on Thursday, adding that her "white privilege" made the remarks even more inexcusable.
After the food columnist verbally bashed Teigen and Kondo during an interview with The New Consumer -- with quotes about Kondo deciding to “capitalize on her fame” and how Teigen’s business empire "horrifies" her -- words were exchanged online between Roman and Teigen. Then on Sunday, Teigen made her Twitter account private and declared she was taking a break from the social media app.
On Monday, Roman penned a lengthy note in which she apologized for making "stupid, careless and insensitive" remarks and admitted that she needs to learn "the difference between being unfiltered and honest vs. being uneducated and flippant.”
She acknowledged that Teigen and Kondo had worked hard on their achievements and confessed that her comments stemmed from her own insecurities.
“I’m not the victim here, and my insecurities don’t excuse this behavior,” she said. “I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I realize that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful. The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury).”
“I know that our culture frequently goes after women, especially women of color, and I’m ashamed to have contributed to that,” she continued. “I want to lift up women and support women of color, my actions indicated the opposite.”
Roman concluded that she wants to become a better listener and shared her email address for anyone wishing to share feedback with her.
A source told ET that Roman is "sick about" the controversy she caused and "really depressed about the whole situation." "She will change from this," the source added.
Teigen responded with a series of tweets, in which she thanked Roman for her apology and explained why she was so hurt by the comments.
"The comments stung, but they moreso stung because they came from u!" Teigen wrote. "It wasn’t my usual news break of some random person hating everything about me!"
Teigen then discussed her own journey of coming to terms with not always being able to say what she wants now that she's in the public eye. "I still think some of those things. I just maybe don’t unleash on my peers on super public platforms lol," she wrote.
Teigen's initial response was that Roman's comments were "a huge bummer," and had “hit me hard,” especially since she has extensively supported the cookbook author.
“I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews,” Teigen wrote. “I even signed on to executive produce the very show she talks about doing in this article.”
Roman later tweeted at Teigen, saying that she's "genuinely sorry" for causing her pain, before posting Monday's lengthier apology.
See more on the spat below.
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