Celebrity

Chrissy Teigen Apologized For Insensitive Megan Thee Stallion Joke

"I should have known that it is just not the right time."

by Mary Kate McGrath
Chrissy Teigen apologizes for Megan Thee Stallion joke after backlash.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Before once again setting her account to private, Chrissy Teigen apologized for a Megan Thee Stallion joke on Twitter, assuring followers that the poor timing was an accident. Teigen's initial tweet, which read, "I have a megan thee stallion joke but it needs to be twerked on," was in response to a meme on the social media platform involving wordplay. People had been doing a variation of a joke circulated by TV writer Nell Scovell, who tweeted, "I have a Charles Manson joke and it kills."

Fans had a negative reaction to Teigen's tweet, noting that Megan is currently recovering from a gunshot wound, and had recently pleaded with fans to be respectful online following the incident. In an Instagram post shared on July 15, Megan confirmed that she'd been shot, and had undergone surgery to remove the bullet from her foot. After the initial report of the situation, social media was inundated with false accounts and jokes about the incident, with some using the news to mock the rapper's personal life and make light of a serious and traumatizing situation.

On July 17, the "Savage" rapper asked fans to have more compassion on Twitter, writing, "Black women are so unprotected & we hold so many things in to protect the feelings of others w/o considering our own." She added that so-called jokes on the internet have real-life implications, writing, "It might be funny to y’all on the internet and just another messy topic for you to talk about but this is my real life and I’m real life hurt and traumatized."

Teigen initially pushed back against the criticism, writing, "Before u start, I love her," and "I’ll delete because you guys are sooooo f*cking annoying. Just unfollow me you absolute tools." However, the cookbook author seemed to realize the tweets were inappropriate in the context of recent events and clarified that her initial joke was not intended to comment on the injury. On Saturday, Teigen posted an official apology on Twitter, writing, "I used the play on words joke with a celeb and something their [sic] known for with meg and twerking and I should have known that it is just not the right time especially for something so dumb and sh*tty and pointless as the joke was."

The Cravings author continued, "Making anyone feel reminded of a terrible time or letting you guys down sucks more than anything to me so I am sorry to Megan and anyone who thought this was about the incident at all." When one fan replied that Teigen chose to pick on someone in recovery, she reiterated that was not the intention, tweeting, "she is known for twerking. That was my only thought behind it." For now, it seems the situation led Teigen to set her account to private,, and it's not clear when she plans to make her tweets available for everyone once again.