Embattled Away co-founder Steph Korey is returning to the helm of the luggage startup just a month after stepping down amid backlash over her alleged role in creating a “toxic” work culture.

Korey will serve as Away’s co-CEO alongside Stuart Haselden, who was tapped to replace her as chief executive after an exposé in The Verge detailed how she maintained a ruthless work environment that included grueling work hours and berating employees in public Slack chatrooms.

Korey issued an apology a day after The Verge’s Dec. 4 story, calling her harsh words “wrong, plain and simple.” She pledged to improve Away’s culture and said she had been working with an executive coach to become a better leader.

A few days later, Away announced that Korey would become the company’s executive chairman and that it was handing the reins to Haselden, a former Lululemon executive.

But Korey pivoted from contrition to defiance Monday, saying the technology website’s reporting “fundamentally misrepresented our company.” Korey said the transition was announced prematurely in an effort to “protect” Away in the wake of The Verge’s reporting — which the company is now considering legal action to combat.

“The inaccurate reporting that was published in December about our company unleashed a social media mob — not just on me, but also on many of you,” Korey told employees in a Slack chat message, adding that the announcement of Haselden’s appointment was “misinterpreted” as her leaving Away entirely.

“So, let me clear that up: I am not leaving the company,” she wrote.

Korey said Away has hired lawyers from Clare Locke LLP, the DC-area law firm that handled a lawsuit against Rolling Stone over an article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia that the magazine later retracted.

“The Verge’s false reporting is some of the worst journalism I’ve seen since Rolling Stone’s article on a fabricated gang rape at UVA,” Libby Locke, the Clare Locke lawyer who was lead trial counsel on the Rolling Stone case, said in a statement. “The Verge published hit pieces filled with lies and distortions designed to damage Away’s reputation.”

The Verge did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment Monday. But the site indicated to the New York Times that it stands by its reporting.

“Steph Korey responding to our reporting by saying her behavior and comments were ‘wrong, plain and simple’ and then choosing to step down as CEO speaks for itself,” The Verge told the Times, which broke the news of Korey’s return to the company.

Korey tried to strike a sunny tone with her staff after slamming The Verge, saying 2020 promised to be a “big year for the company.” Away was valued at $1.4 billion after it closed a funding round last May, less than four years after its founding.

The company is still working to improve how its employees work and communicate with each other, Korey said.

“I am so invigorated and inspired for the future of Away and of this team: we are more in it together than ever, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Korey wrote to employees.