“Frankly, we let some inaccurate reporting influence the timeline of a transition plan that we had,” Ms. Korey said in an interview last week. With some time and perspective, she said, the company’s board members decided to reverse themselves. “All of us said, ‘It’s not right.’”

The members of Away’s board say they feel as if they fell victim to management by Twitter mob.

The company now says it disputes The Verge’s reporting and has hired Elizabeth M. Locke, the lawyer who successfully brought a defamation case against Rolling Stone magazine for a story about a supposed gang rape at the University of Virginia. It is unclear whether Away plans to bring a lawsuit.

In a statement, The Verge said, “Steph Korey responding to our reporting by saying her behavior and comments were ‘wrong, plain and simple’ and then choosing to step down as C.E.O. speaks for itself.”

Sitting in a windowless conference room at the company’s SoHo headquarters, Ms. Korey, at one point nearly breaking down in tears, said that the month since the article was published had been a tough lesson about management — and herself. She was bombarded by criticism on Twitter and other social media platforms that she thought would put the company’s future in jeopardy.

“It’s very upsetting if suddenly total strangers tell you that you should get an abortion,” said Ms. Korey, who is pregnant. One user on Twitter wrote: “Imagine how she’ll treat that baby.”

In the moment, she said, she chose to take herself out of the chief executive role and make herself executive chairwoman. “I said, ‘I don’t know if the company needs a C.E.O. under fire right now,’” she said. “‘Why don’t we just accelerate our transition plan?’”

In a separate interview, Ludwig Ensthaler, a partner at the venture capital firm Global Founders Capital and the only independent director on Away’s four-member board, confirmed that it had been Ms. Korey’s decision to step down and that there was no pressure from outside investors. He added that he should not have accepted the restructuring plan she proposed in the first place.