UPDATE #2: It’s been over a week since the last update in the Chrissy Teigen/Alison Roman saga, which feels like a lifetime in whatever 2020 hellscape we’re in. Unsurprisingly, Chrissy and Alison both seem to have moved on. Chrissy is posting all over social media as usual, and Alison has been… radio silent for over a week. The last thing she posted was her formal apology note on May 11th, which is odd for her; she normally doesn’t go more than a couple days without posting on Instagram.
Well, it turns out that this whole situation isn’t as over for Alison as it seems to be for Chrissy. On Wednesday, the New York Times told Us Weekly that “Alison Roman’s column is on temporary leave.” They didn’t give any other details, but considering the NYT column is pretty much what put Alison Roman on the map, this feels major. While I felt like her latest apology was pretty comprehensive, it looks like she’s still facing professional fallout over the controversy. If the New York Times is questioning their relationship with Roman, other areas of her business could certainly be affected.
For now, she’s just on temporary leave, so this could blow over by tomorrow, but it’s hard to say. Chrissy Teigen is certainly someone with a lot of powerful connections, so it’s not surprising that Alison Roman’s comments could have a ripple effect on other things she’s involved with. Moral of the story: in 2020, it’s best not to mess with Chrissy Teigen.
UPDATE: It’s been a few days, and as with any good online feud, there have been new developments in the saga of Chrissy Teigen v. Alison Roman. On Sunday, Chrissy Teigen went private on Twitter and said she was taking a little break, but to the surprise of absolutely no one, that didn’t last long.
On Monday, Alison Roman took to social media with a long apology (not a Notes app screenshot, thankfully), in which she called her comments about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo “stupid, careless, and insensitive.” She acknowledged that her remarks were tone-deaf, and that both of these women have “worked extremely hard to get where they are.” She also explored the toxic tendency to resort to tearing down other women as a way to deal with her own insecurities, and addressed the fact that she, a white woman, used her platform to disparage two women of color.
In the statement, she recognized her white privilege, and said that she aims “to lift up and support women of color,” and that her “actions indicated the opposite.” She included an email address in the post, vowing to read and accept any feedback that people wish to send her. That’s bold, because I can’t even imagine what some of the Instagram comment trolls are going to say to her over email.
After Alison posted her message, Chrissy Teigen responded with a thread on Twitter, and she was receptive to the apology. She thanked Alison for her apology, and said that she just wants the issue to be over.
thank u for this, @alisoneroman. To be clear, it never once crossed my mind for u to apologize for what you genuinely thought! The comments stung, but they moreso stung because they came from u! It wasn’t my usual news break of some random person hating everything about me!
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 12, 2020
She also said that she and Alison “are alike in so many ways,” and talked about learning not to say whatever pops into her head in public forums. Even for someone who seems like she doesn’t give a f*ck on social media, Chrissy can’t just say anything she wants. She’s a public figure, with kids and businesses, and she walks a fine line between seeming unfiltered and saying things that could get her canceled.
Eventually, I realized that once the relatable “snarky girl who didn’t care” became a pretty successful cookbook author and had more power in the industry, I couldn’t just say whatever the fuck I wanted. The more we grow, the more we get those wakeup calls.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 12, 2020
While Chrissy acknowledged that Alison Roman’s comments “stung,” it’s mostly because she values her talent and her opinions. At the end of the day, Alison Roman may not want Chrissy Teigen’s exact career, but it still seems like there’s a mutual admiration there, and that’s probably more important than one ill-advised comment in an interview. While this may issue may be a bump in the road, I think it’s safe to consider Chrissy Teigen and Alison Roman’s beef squashed for now. Who knows, maybe they’ll be collaborating once this whole quarantine nightmare is over!
As you’ve probably noticed, cooking is having a major moment right now. With everyone stuck at home during the pandemic, people are rediscovering the magic of cooking, stocking up on kitchen gadgets, and posting way too many photos of their banana bread. If you’ve been scouring the internet for recipes during quarantine, chances are you’ve come across many of Alison Roman’s creations. Roman, a New York Times columnist and best-selling cookbook author, has been blowing up, and over the weekend, she got in her first big online feud, with none other than Chrissy Teigen. Sadly, I’m not one of those people who gets excited about trying a new recipe, but this drama is just what I needed to finally get invested in the cooking world.
Last week, The New Consumer published an interview with Alison Roman, in which she talked about her cooking philosophy, Instagram live culture, and her business goals. This last part is where Chrissy Teigen came up. When talking about creating product lines and how there’s “too much stuff in the world,” 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.” The phrase “content farm” already sounded negative enough, but then Roman turned the knife, saying “That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that.”
Personally, I think Chrissy Teigen’s whole situation sounds pretty f*cking phenomenal, but it’s fine if that’s not what Alison Roman wants for herself. But to call if horrifying? That seems a little dramatic. In this section of the interview, Roman also criticized Marie Kondo for capitalizing on her success with a product line, saying “damn, bitch, you fucking just sold out immediately!” Ouch.
Of course, once these comments were out in the open, it didn’t take long for Chrissy Teigen to be made aware of them. In a thread of several tweets, Chrissy addressed Alison Roman’s interview, pointing out that she’s been a long-time fan, making and posting her recipes, and even signing on to executive produce the TV project that Alison mentions in the interview.
She also hit back at Roman’s comment about Chrissy’s Cravings brand being a “content farm.” She explains that it’s just her and two other women, and that she started the whole thing because she wanted something that was just for herself. She also clarified that having a product line was one of her dreams, not some sell-0ut byproduct of her success.
Throughout the thread, Chrissy reiterated how much she’s loved and admired Alison Roman, and that she was genuinely hurt to read her words. She also added that there is “NO monetary gain yet” from the Cravings website, hitting back at Roman’s comment that “she’s making a ton of f*cking money.” TL;DR: Chrissy Teigen was blindsided and hurt by Alison Roman’s thoughts on her, and took issue with some of the specific claims she made.
No surprise, it didn’t take long for Alison Roman to catch wind of Chrissy’s tweets, and she went into full-on damage control mode. Rather than apologizing, she first tweeted a clarification, saying that she was “not coming for anyone who’s successful,” but that her “business model does not include a product line.”
I want to clarify, I am not coming for anyone who’s successful, especially not women. I was trying to clarify that my business model does not include a product line, which work very well for some, but I don’t see working for me.
— alison roman (@alisoneroman) May 8, 2020
That’s interesting, considering Roman spoke in the same interview about a product collaboration she’s currently working on. It’s a “capsule collection” of cookware utensils, which, although on a different scale than Chrissy’s product line, is still a product line. This just seems like semantics, but products being sold are products being sold!
From there, Roman segued into an actual apology, which makes sense, because I’d imagine her Twitter mentions were a f*cking mess at this point.
Being a woman who takes down other women is absolutely not my thing and don’t think it’s yours, either (I obviously failed to effectively communicate that). I hope we can meet one day, I think we’d probably get along.
— alison roman (@alisoneroman) May 9, 2020
She apologized for the pain she caused Chrissy, and acknowledged that she shouldn’t have used her or Marie Kondo’s businesses as negative examples. She added that “being a woman who takes down other women is absolutely not my thing”, and that she hopes she and Chrissy can meet one day.
I have a feeling it might be a while before that meeting happens, and it’s not just because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Chrissy pivoted back to her signature spicy Twitter persona, suggesting that she and Alison Roman should probably unfollow each other. Reader, my jaw dropped when I first saw this tweet. It’s just so good.
For what it’s worth, it looks like Chrissy Teigen is still following Alison Roman, so maybe she wasn’t being completely serious, but I still appreciate the drama.
Sadly, Twitter has a way of ruining things, and it wasn’t long before people started coming for… Chrissy? Yeah, I don’t get it either. On Sunday, she shared that she’s been getting some crazy messages since this drama started. It’s one thing to choose sides in a celebrity feud, but there’s never a reason to be messaging someone crazy things about their kids. People are truly the worst.
In her message, Chrissy said she’s going to take a break from Twitter, and she’s since made her tweets private (hence the screenshots). The sh*tty thing about this is that I don’t think it was even that serious to begin with. Alison Roman made some ill-advised comments about Chrissy, but it wasn’t some vendetta against her. They both responded with their thoughts, and that could have been the end of it. But now Twitter trolls are sending threats, and Chrissy’s private, and just like that, the fun Twitter beef is ruined. Ugh.
When it comes down to it, I doubt that Chrissy and Alison will stay mad at each other for long. Especially if Chrissy is producing Alison’s TV show, it seems like it’s in everyone’s best interest for them to get along. Even if Alison Roman says she doesn’t want to be a sell-out or have a product line, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind getting some of those Chrissy Teigen coins. Now that I’m invested in this drama, maybe I’ll actually try making one of Alison Roman’s recipes? *Opens Postmates*
Images: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com; chrissyteigen, alisoneroman / Twitter
