Alison Roman has apologised to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo for making “tone deaf remarks” about their business empires.
“I used their names disparagingly to try and distinguish myself, which I absolutely do not have an excuse for,” the New York Times food columnist wrote in a statement on Twitter.
“I need to learn, and respect, the difference between being unfiltered and honest vs. being uneducated and flippant.”
Last week, in an interview with New Consumer, Roman said that the way Teigen runs her various food and cooking businesses “horrifies” her.
“Like, what Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me,” she told the publication.
“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.
“That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of f***ing money.”
Teigen responded on Twitter, describing Roman’s comments as a “huge bummer” and said they had “hit [her] hard”.
“I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Roman criticised Kondo and accused the Tidying Up with Marie Kondo star of capitalising on her fame.
I’ve thought a lot this weekend about my interview and the things I said. I know this is a lengthy note (succinctness has never been my strong suit). I appreciate you taking the time to read. pic.twitter.com/3iGAyN3c9d
— alison roman (@alisoneroman)
“That is completely antithetical to everything she’s ever taught you… I’m like, damn, b****, you f****** just sold out immediately! Someone’s like ‘you should make stuff,’ and she’s like, ‘okay, slap my name on it, I don’t give a s***!’” Roman said.
Now, in her apology statement, Roman has explained that she deeply regrets making such disparaging comments about both Kondo and Teigen.
“They’ve worked extremely hard to get to where they are and both deserve better than my tone deaf remarks,” she said.
“Why couldn’t I express myself without tearing someone down? … I’m embarrassed I didn’t.”
The food writer went on to explain how she feels her comments were particularly damaging because of her “white privilege”.
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)
“I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I recognise that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful,” she said.
“The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury). I know that our culture frequently goes after women, especially women of colour, and I’m ashamed to have contributed to that. I want to lift up and support women of color, my actions indicated the opposite.”
Teigen has since thanked Roman for her apology.
“To be clear, it never once crossed my mind for u to apologise for what you genuinely thought!” she replied on Twitter.
“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!”
