Chrissy Teigen.Photo: Rich Polk/Getty
Chrissy Teigenis speaking about self-reflection after her cyberbullying scandal.
Appearing on theTodayshow Tuesday morning, theCravings: All Togetherauthor, 35, told hostHoda Kotbthat she has emerged a stronger person after taking the time to address her past behavior. Earlier this year, Teigen wascalled out for her past social media posts, which she admitted were “horrible” inan essay for Medium, where she apologized amid the controversy.
“Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I haven’t felt the crushing weight of regret for the things I’ve said in the past,” she wrote at the time. “There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets. My targets didn’t deserve them. No one does. Many of them needed empathy, kindness, understanding and support, not my meanness masquerading as a kind of casual, edgy humor. I was a troll, full stop. And I am so sorry.”
In reflection, Teigen said onToday,“Having this period of time to digest it all and to look back and to realize that honestly there is always so much time to grow and to learn and to become more empathetic. I look at my kids and I look at what I want their value to be and how I want them to treat people, and to see that in myself, that I wasn’t doing that was — the hardest part for me was realizing, ‘My goodness, this really had an affect on people.’ "
“I think about how much I’ve changed just in the past year, how much I’ve grown and learned, and then to think of that in the term of a lifetime, how much room there is to always know more and be better,” she added.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“For me it was a big moment of like, ‘Wow, I need to find out how I can be better, how I can grow from this, learn from this. There’s that old cliché of ‘I’m glad it happened,’ but truly it made me a stronger person. A better person. That’s when I went sober, I went clean — I’mactually 100 days sober today andI’m, like, so excited, yeah. I feel so good. I feel clearheaded.”
“I feel like I’ve done the work, and I hope these people can forgive and be able to welcome the fact that hopefully they’ve seen me be better,” said Teigen.
RELATED VIDEO:Chrissy TeigenDenies Claims She Deletes Negative Instagram Comments: ‘That’s Next-Level Hater’
Teigen shares son Miles, 3, and daughter Luna, 5, with husbandJohn Legend. In her June essay, she shared what shewants her kids to learn fromher public apology.
“John tells me almost every day how much our daughter Luna reminds him of me. Every day, I try to make sure she’s all the best parts of me, all the things I aspire to be all the time, but fail at sometimes,” wrote Teigen at the time. “And we preach kindness to her and Miles every chance we get. Will they eventually realize there is some hypocrisy there? I certainly do. But I hope they recognize my evolution.”
“My goal is to be so good that my kids will think this was all a fairy tale,” she continued. “Not the fake good. The good that has the best intentions, the good who wakes up wanting to make her friends, family, her team and fans as happy as possible. The good who will still f— up in front of the world but rarely, and never not growing only more good from it.”
Teigen added, “I’m going to keep working to be the best version of myself for EVERYONE. Everyone deserves better — even my detractors. And better is what you can expect from me. The world needs more kindness and love and I want to contribute to it. I’ve been on a path of self-improvement for the past decade and that path is going to continue.”
source: people.com
