By Cydney Henderson -USA TODAY
Chrissy Teigen, an outspoken mother-of-two who is no stranger to Twitter trolls, has resorted to blocking over a million accounts propagating conspiracy theories linking the star to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Teigen has faced a barrage of “scary harassment,” she says, since, following the arrest of his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, some social media users alleged that Teigen once flew on Epstein’s private jet. The cookbook author says she was also accused of being a “pedophile.”
Teigen vehemently denied the allegations. “I have never even met the man,” she tweeted on July 10, referring to Epstein. “Or been to the island. Or on the plane.”
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend
Despite many attempts to fight back, Teigen said the vicious Twitter campaign is so frightening that she’s “worried for my family” and proceeded to delete thousands of tweets used by trolls as alleged evidence of her involvement with the disgraced financier.
“I actually deleted 60,000 tweets because I cannot (expletive) STAND you idiots anymore and I’m worried for my family,” she tweeted Tuesday. “Finding me talking about toddlers and tiaras in 2013 and thinking you’re some sort of (expletive) operative.”
A day later, Teigen resorted to blocking over one million users. She said she’s contemplated legal action and is even considering leaving Twitter, where she has more than 13 million followers, if the harassment continues.
“I have block chained over one million people, ONE MILLION people today and I am still flooded with sick psychopaths,” she tweeted Wednesday. “So please, spare me the ‘just ignore them, they’re just trolls.'”
Teigen added Tuesday: “If twitter doesn’t do something about this *actually scary* harassment, I am gonna have to go.”
USA TODAY reached out to Teigen’s rep for comment.
The social media blitz against Teigen started last week with claims that her name appeared on unsubstantiated flight logs said to belong to Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial in a New York federal detention center in 2019.
The model tried to reason with her accusers – “if we wanna play with your lie just for fun, do you understand that if I were on the flight for the date of this ‘manifest,’ I’d be a victim” – before vowing to “stop entertaining them.”
Teigen, who said she’s still recovering from surgery, opened up about how the ordeal is affecting her.
“I can’t take my medicine right now either because of my surgery and other pills so they have no idea how hard this is to cope with,” she tweeted Tuesday. “They won’t stop until I die. I’m convinced of it. And even then they’ll think of another conspiracy.”
In another tweet, she continued: “When pedo Ghislaine (Maxwell) sings like a canary (if she doesn’t die) and we have nothing to do with this, I know for a fact it won’t go away. They’ll just think of another excuse. It is extremely disheartening. I don’t know how to stop this. i don’t think anyone quite gets it.”
On Tuesday, Maxwell pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped procure young victims for Epstein’s child sex trafficking operation that began more than 25 years ago.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson
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