Food writer Alison Roman apologises to Chrissy Teigen following Twitter row

Teigen responded to say she accepts the apology
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Abigail Malbon12 May 2020

New York Times food writer Alison E. Roman has issued a public apology to Chrissy Teigen after the two fell out online, leading Chrissy to announce she’s “gonna take a little break” from the platform.

Teigen had been lined up to executive produce an upcoming series by Roman, but in an interview, Roman said she was “horrified” by Teigen’s cooking empire and accused people of “running a content farm for her.”

She said: “What Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me. She had a successful cookbook. And then it was like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her.”

“That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of f**king money,” she continued.

Teigen called the comments a “huge bummer,” and changed her account to private - meaning only existing followers could see her tweets.

Roman also hit out at tidying guru Marie Kondo, who she said “f**king just sold out immediately”, during the interview

After Teigen tweeted Roman directly to say, “I guess we should probably unfollow each other.” Roman reached out to her on Twitter to say she had “sent an email” and was “genuinely sorry I caused you pain with what I said.”

She wrote, “I shouldn’t have used you /your business (or Marie’s!) as an example to show what I wanted for my own career - it was flippant, careless and I’m so sorry.”

She has since issued a lengthy statement on Twitter, explaining: "I need to formally apologise to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. I used their names disparagingly to try to distinguish myself, which I absolutely do not have an excuse for. It was stupid, careless and insensitive. I need to learn, and respect, the difference between being unfiltered and honest vs. being uneducated and flippant."

She added, "The burden is not on them (or anyone else) to teach me, and I’m deeply sorry that my learning came at Chrissy and Marie’s expense. They’ve worked extremely hard to get to where they are and both deserve better than my tone deaf remarks."

Roman also accepted criticism that her comments were perceived by some as racially charged, adding: "I’m not the victim here, and my insecurities don’t excuse this behaviour. I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I recognise that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful."

"The fact 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),"

Teigen then made her Twitter profile public again, and responded: “thank u for this, @alisoneroman. To be clear, it never once crossed my mind for u to apologise for what you genuinely thought! The comments stung, but they more so stung because they came from u! It wasn’t my usual news break of some random person hating everything about me!”

She added: “and if anyone needs a lesson on how less is more, please look at the amazing Marie Kondo, who so very wisely didn't say s**t through any of this.”

It’s not known whether Teigen will remain an executive producer on Roman's show.

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