Chrissy Teigen has waded into the recent controversy over celebrity dating app Raya and two stars who allegedly tried to court younger women on it.
Two young social media influencers separately claimed that actors Ben Affleck, 48, and Matthew Perry, 51, contacted them on the app, which social media users were quick to condemn.
However, cookbook author and model Teigen says that both sides aren’t free from criticism.
“I agree celebs shouldn’t be making these creepy desperate video replies on raya but it’s tacky to release private messages,” she tweeted. “Ya both wrong, congrats.”
She was in part referring to the videos that were released by the influencers showing their recordings of the actors.
The first person to release a clip was Nivine Jay, who wrote in a TikTok video earlier this month: “Thinking of the time I matched with Ben Affleck on Raya and thought it was fake so I unmatched him, and he sent me a video on Instagram.” The video also included a clip of Affleck, who can be see saying: “Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It’s me.”
Later, Jay told E! News she didn’t share the video of Affleck to shame him.
“I’m seeing a lot of comments calling him a creep and I don’t think that’s fair. I wasn’t making fun of him in the video,” she explained. “I was making fun of myself for thinking he was a catfish and it was just supposed to be funny.”
TikTok user Kate Haralson, 20, recently posted a since-deleted clip of an alleged video call with Perry from 2020. “When you match w Matthew Perry as a joke on a dating app and he facetimes you and plays 20 questions with you,” she captioned her post.
“Do you always play with your hair this way?” Perry is heard saying in the clip.
Haralson told Page Six that she uploaded the TikTok to spotlight men who seek out much younger women.
“A lot of people were saying I’m a bully and mean for posting this, and it made me feel kind of bad, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of guys in Hollywood are talking to all these young girls and it’s something that I think a lot of people should be aware of,” Haralson said. She went on to say that she deleted her TikTok because she felt bad about the backlash faced by Perry, whom she said was “a nice guy.”
Following her video, Haralson’s Raya account was deleted for violating the policy about sharing details of its members.
“I should have expected that would happen,” Haralson said. “I feel fine about it. I never really used it anymore anyways.”
