Weighing in on the cookbook author's past anger towards Michael, Maxie shares in a new interview that it 'stirred from the racism that [Michael] showed [her] 7 years ago' as he allegedly called her N-word repeatedly.
- Jun 17, 2021
AceShowbiz - Things are getting ugly for fashion designer Michael Costello. After model Leona Lewis called him out for allegedly "humiliating" her prior to a 2014 charity fashion show, fellow designer Maxie James shared more insights into Michael's bullying accusations which he leveled at Chrissy Teigen.
In an interview with theJasmineBrand, Maxie called Michael "the biggest bully of them all." She explained, "For Michael Costello, we had an encounter about 7 years ago. So literally the situation that he's been talking about on the internet, you know, as far as trying to call Chrissy [Teigen] out on her bullying him... that was the exact incident that he and I had gotten into and she actually was like defending me when she did say those words to [him.]"
Weighing in on Chrissy's anger towards Michael, Maxie shared that it "stirred from the racism that [Michael Costello] showed me 7 years ago." Maxie also recalled having a physical altercation with Michael over the matter, saying, "And I did things out of character too when he first called me the n-word. I mean we got into a whole fistfight in the fabric store."
She admitted that she "did react emotionally," though she explained that it was "because I just never had experienced racism before." Maxie also insisted that "the online interaction of the designer using the derogatory word was not photoshopped liked he claimed it was."
"It [stemmed] from him saying it to me online. He for sure said it online, it was not photoshop," Maxie stressed. "That was his PR team spinning it around because he is like a celebrity designer and at the time I was like-just starting. I wasn't in business no more than 6 months when he did what he did to me."
Maxie claimed that Michael stole her dress. She tried to reach out to him but he never responded, prompting her to share the story to her followers. Things went south when they met a year later at a fabric store. According to her, Michael approached her and said, "Oh, I remember you, you're that black n***er b***h that tried to sabotage my business." Michael also allegedly took her phone and threw it.
"We fought. Like literally, like it was back in the day like I was in high school. The police came and because I had witnesses, the owner of the store gave his statement and was like, 'Yeah, he definitely abused her first, like verbally, he broke her phone, he definitely called her the N-word and I got all that on video.' And the police was like, 'Well, since you have a witness it's up to you if you want for him to go to jail or not but he can request for you also to go to jail since you reacted physically.' So I'm like, 'No, I can't go to jail. I have a fashion show in two days,' " she recounted.
Jumping to Chrissy's defense, Maxie said, "I feel that it's ironic like 7 years later while [Chrissy Teigen] is being bashed and kicked for her past mistakes and she's owning up to them and trying to do better- here you come with your sob story and you're playing victim and it's like... you are the bully of them all, sir. Did you forget? I definitely don't want people to defend him for being bullied when he's the biggest bully of them all."
Prior to this, Michael claimed in a lengthy Instagram post that Chrissy drove him suicidal as she bullied her years ago. His mom Nancy Costello also echoed the story, telling Fox News, "The damage is done. [Chrissy] never knew that Michael would post those text messages. It would have meant a lot to Michael if him, his collaborators and supporters would have heard her speak his name. Maybe now she will do something right."
