EXCLUSIVE: Designer Maxie James Claims She Had Physical Altercation With Michael Costello After He Called Her N-Word More Than Once, Says Chrissy Teigen Came To Her Defense 

EXCLUSIVE: Maxie James Calls Out Fellow Fashion Designer Michael Costello For Calling Her The N-Word More Than Once, Lying About What Took Place With Chrissy Teigen, & Says He Is ‘The Biggest Bully Of Them All’

In an exclusive interview with theJasmineBRAND.com, well-known fashion designer Maxie James, aka Maxie J, set the record straight and filled us in on her alleged physical altercation with fellow designer Michael Costello that took place after he reportedly called her the n-word. Maxie J is no stranger to the spotlight and has worked with multiple celebrities throughout her fashion career so far, including Blac Chyna, Letoya Luckett, Erica Mena, and India Love just to name a few. The fashionista has recently found herself making headlines again after she used her platform to call out Michael Costello for crying wolf and assaulting her in the past. During our interview, Maxie J said,

“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.]”

As previously reported, 35-year-old Chrissy Teigen is currently on an apology tour after her old controversial tweets resurfaced in which she seemingly bullied 26-year-old Courtney Stodden, a model and reality TV personality who rose to fame after marrying 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchinson at just 16 years old. In addition to the old tweets, Courtney Stodden, who was a teenager at the time of the alleged bullying, claimed Chrissy Teigen sent them DMs wishing they’d kill themselves (Courtney Stodden uses they/them pronouns).

After Chrissy Teigen issued a lengthy apology for her past actions Michael Costello, 38, came forward and claimed the famous model also bullied him in the past too. According to Michael Costello, in 2014 Chrissy Teigen publicly falsely accused him of being racist via his IG comment section. Michael Costello went on to say that Chrissy Teigen formed the wrong opinion about him based on an alleged photoshopped image of him using the n-word online and she had a hand in him losing job opportunities because of that.

Chrissy Teigen

Maxie J exclusively told theJasmineBrand that Chrissy Teigen’s anger towards Michael Costello was because of the way he once wrongfully treated her.

“I do know that [Chrissy Teigen’s] anger stirred from the racism that [Michael Costello] showed me 7 years ago. 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 added,

“I did react emotionally because I just never had experienced racism before.”

She continued and claimed that wasn’t the first time Michael Costello has called her the n-word and 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. 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.”

According to Maxie J, her issues with Michael Costello started after he purchased one of her dresses and repurposed it as his own design. Maxie J claimed that she reached out to Michael Costello after he allegedly stole her dress but he never replied to her so she shared the story of what happened online to her followers.

“I posted his receipt of him purchasing the dress from me. I posted the picture of him reposting the dress on his Instagram and I just put my phone down and left. Went to go cry, felt bad for myself, and I started hearing my phone dinging out of control.”

She added,

“He was reacting emotionally as well and he was going off on people in the comments of the [proof] that I posted and that is when he [made the comment] and was like ‘oh, you’re defending that black’, you know.”

Maxie James

Maxie J shared with us that she ultimately decided to let the drama with Michael Costello go and was ready to move on, however, things took a turn for the worst when the pair ran into each other a year later at a fabric store.

“So like a year later I go to a fabric store and I see him. I instantly notice him but he did not notice me at first.”

She added that when Michael Costello realized who she was he came up to her and said,

“Oh, I remember you, you’re that black n*gger b*tch that tried to sabotage my business.”

“And he takes my phone out of my hand and throws it and it shattered. I lose my mind, and when I say I lose my mind-I lost it.”

She added,

“I’m not the proudest of how I reacted but I also don’t take it back.”

“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.’”

Maxie James

According to Maxie J, after their altercation, Michael Costello posted exaggerated images of his bruises online and tried to paint the narrative that she was the aggressor in the situation. Thankfully, however, Maxie J said that one of Michael Costello’s employees anonymously reached out to her and helped her clear her name in the public’s eye by pointing out the flaws in Costello’s version of what took place.

She added,

“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.”

Maxie J also made it very clear that Chrissy Teigen’s online comments towards Michael Costello came because she was defending a black woman from Costello’s racist remarks.

“That comment, that original comment when she replied to him like ‘oh, so you’re just going around doing all kind of racist stuff, your career is about to be over.’ She said that under the video that I posted of the store owner witnessing the whole racial slur thing.”

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What are your thoughts on what Maxie James exclusively shared with theJasmineBrand? Tell us in the comments below. 

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