Chrissy Teigen has rushed to the defence of High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens after she was slammed by online commentators for saying the COVID-19 lockdown in the US was "bullshit" and the deaths the virus caused "inevitable".
Hudgens later apologised for what she said during an Instagram Live video about the coronavirus outbreak, but continued to receive backlash for the comments.
Teigen told her 12.4 million followers: "Sometimes people, especially famous people, are gonna say really stupid shit."
"So are you. And they, and you, will learn from it and hopefully their history says they're good. It's ok. At the same time, wow they really had a dumb f**kin moment [sic]," she continued.
"But you don't have ruin their lives."
Teigen clarified her Twitter rant wasn't pertaining to herself, after she was criticised for making a "tone deaf" tweet about ordering soup from across the country last week.
"This isn't about me this time. But it will be one day, or it'll be you. But yeah today it's Vanessa lol," she wrote.
"And no, life is rarely ruined for anyone. But you are damn well trying your best. Just stop."
Teigen continued to defend Hudgens in response to comments from followers, replying directly to fans who weren't accepting the actor's apology, in which she initially claimed her words were taken "out of context".
"I'm against cancel culture but believe ppl with HUGE platforms who can reach thousands/MILLIONS of people should be more careful and think about the impact their words can have," one Twitter user wrote.
"It's easy to claim words are out of context when backlash is received but would she have apologised without it?"
"Totally! But we all have stupid moments and some people (like me) have a lot of passion and things don't come out the way we mean it," Teigen replied.
"Anyhoo glad you're awesome and perfect congrats love you!" Teigen added in a sarcastic tweet.
"You are not gonna talk me into not forgiving people's mistakes. It makes me clear and makes me happy and I'm gonna be happy. You wanna be angry online all f**kin day, go for it."
Many other celebrities have weighed in publicly on the coronavirus pandemic. Some, such as Matthew McConaughey and Arnold Schwarzenegger, have shared reassuring video messages, while others like Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, have kept fans updated on their recovery after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
