Chrissy Teigen does it all. The model, chef, mom and influencer is known for being a wide-open
book on social media. And her marriage to John Legend is what "relationship goals" are
made of. But how did she get to where she is today? Here's why Chrissy Teigen is turning
heads.
Chrissy Teigen was born in Delta, Utah, in 1985, later relocating to Washington state
with her family. While her dad Ron is of Norwegian descent, fans are familiar with her Thai mother,
Pepper, who often makes social media appearances with her daughter, given that she now lives
with Teigen and her family in their California home. While Chrissy's parents filed for divorce
in 2019, she is reportedly on good terms with both of them.
"Let's cheers. We gonna clean the pantry out?"
"I know. Now we have to clean this out, don't we?"
"Yeah."
By all accounts, Chrissy enjoyed a relatively normal childhood. She was a cheerleader, though
she's the first person to admit she wasn't very good at it. She once posted on Instagram,
"Truly no idea how I made this team. The best part is they claimed there was no JV [or]
varsity but one squad got to cheer for basketball and football and the other [mine] got volleyball
and wrestling."
But along with her natural athletic abilities, Teigen struggled with mental health challenges
from an early age. She revealed to Glamour UK,
"I was an anxious, nervous kid. That transferred into being anxious in high school and then
right after, when I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life."
Chrissy's dad moved the family to Huntington Beach, California just before her junior year
of high school, according to Vanity Fair. And it was there — in the sunny, beachside
town — that Chrissy shaved her eyebrows, dyed her hair jet black, and got two jobs.
As fate would have it, one of them was working at a surf shop, where she was quickly discovered
by a photographer. With one lucky photoshoot — where her dad even chipped in to hold
a light reflector panel — her modeling career was born.
Teigen landed a campaign for Billabong, and soon found herself on the cover of the much-coveted
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. But despite her enviable success, as Teigen tells it,
her days as a model were consumed by criticism and scrutiny. She explained to Glamour,
"That was my entire career, doing weigh-ins. With model agencies, it was normal to get
measured too, and I did it myself mainly, so when you had direct bookings without castings,
[the clients] knew what they were getting."
"That's definitely a big downside to this whole world, is how can you complain about
people critiquing your body when you literally are like, 'Look at my body.'"
Fate would strike again when the same photographer who first discovered Teigen, later showed
her photos to John Legend while working on the music video for "Stereo"…
Indeed, it was on the set of one of his music video shoots that Teigen met John Legend for
the first time — and hit it off almost immediately. And, as Legend tells it, once they started
dating, things got serious pretty quickly. Claiming he never knew he wanted to be with
someone funny, until he met the hilarious Chrissy Teigen, Legend revealed to Vanity
Fair,
"She just entertained the hell out of me, texting me. What people respond to in her
tweets today was the same energy in those texts."
"Part of what I fell in love with was that person who she is."
Seven years later, in 2013, the couple tied the knot in a lavish, star-studded wedding
in Italy, according to Brides. And since then, the two have proven time and time again that
they're still very much in love, and all about their family. Director Ava DuVernay — who
worked with Legend on the music for Selma — once told Vanity Fair of the duo,
"I've been nourished by watching them. It's just beautiful to see a real melding of their
family life — their home life, those moments they curate with their children — side by
side with real activist commentary."
"What up, YouTube?"
One of most standout qualities of Teigen's very essence is her enormous presence on social
media — which is arguably what has made her so famous. Fans love her for a variety
of reasons — including her candor, her total lack of a filter, and her genuine sincerity
when the situation calls for it. It's also why many people feel like they know Teigen
on a personal level; She's an open book about everything, seemingly all the time.
All that considered, it's no wonder that Teigen has amassed millions of loyal followers on
Instagram and Twitter. Her success with fans was summed up by none other than social media
maven, Kim Kardashian , who told Vogue,
"Chrissy is real and authentic. She's so open and honest with her audience. She also has
the best sense of humor."
Of course, Teigen is the first to admit she sometimes cares too much about what people
think of her. She told the outlet,
"I'll read a thousand of the sweetest comments — 'You have the cutest family, I love your
book' — and then one person is like, 'You look like the Bride of Chucky' and I'll be
like, 'Oh my God, [this random user] thinks I look like Chucky.'"
After Teigen and Legend got married, the couple struggled with fertility issues and in turn,
focused their efforts on IVF. But according to Teigen, that wasn't exactly a magic bullet,
at least not initially. She told The Cut,
"Ours didn't work the first time, and it was devastating. You realize that a lot of it
is luck, and you can't blame things on yourself."
But soon enough, the difficult journey would produce some adorable results.
"Hello everybody, it's Chrissy and John and Luna and Miles."
The couple welcomed their daughter Luna in 2016 and their son Miles in 2018 — thanks
to IVF. But Teigen also admitted to the outlet,
"It's a complete miracle when it works. There are so many people that still struggle, even
with access to IVF."
Of course, the two cutest members of the Legend-Teigen clan have made plenty of appearances on their
mama's Instagram.
While Teigen was overjoyed with finally becoming a mother, three months after the birth of
her daughter Luna, she began to feel depressed. As she explained to Glamour,
"It was a sad existence. There were no highs. It was a flatline of life for a few months."
As it turned out, Teigen wasn't just feeling the baby blues, she was actually suffering
from postpartum depression — which she says was obvious to everyone but her. She said,
"John was there when the doctor gave the diagnosis and, of course, he already knew. I didn't
know it could sneak up so late or that it could happen to someone like me, where I have
all the resources."
Fortunately Teigen was able to get the professional help she needed, and developed the tools to
work through that difficult period in her life. She also knew exactly what to watch
for when she had her second child, Miles, two years later.
"I think it's important for women to come together, seek treatment, seek help, and know
that they're vulnerable and not alone."
In addition to having looks for days, Teigen is also a huge fan of mixing it up in the
kitchen. Claiming that no matter who you are, you're definitely going to burn something
once in a while, she told Glamour,
"Being in the kitchen and on my feet, getting to move around is a way to make me feel part
of life again. It brings you back down to earth."
Teigen published her first cookbook in 2016 — Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You
Want to Eat — and followed that up with Cravings: Hungry for More, two years later.
By 2019, she launched Cravings By Chrissy, a site where she shares her favorite recipes
and interacts with fans. She also designed a signature kitchen ware line for Target,
owns a production company and has a cooking show on Hulu, according to Marie Claire.
"Oh, there's too many. I'll stop. I can stop."
On top of her flourishing food empire, Teigen has also led the Quibi show Chrissy's Court
— alongside her mom, as bailiff — and has been a commentator on Lip Sync Battle
since 2015.
Just because Teigen is rich and famous and seems to have it all doesn't mean she's resting
on her laurels when it comes to making the world a better place.
"America at its best is big, beautiful and diverse. Like our great city of Los Angeles."
In addition to sharing her outspoken political views on social media, Teigen has ensured
that both of her companies — Cravings and Suit & Thai — are 100 percent staffed by
women. She even has an inclusivity rider attached to her Hulu deal, which states that the company…
"[Hire] more women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ individuals so
that the overall production team better reflects the broader community."
As Teigen tells it, when she made her interest in diverse hiring a real priority, Hulu was
on board from the very beginning. She told Marie Claire,
"They didn't question it. The rooms on every show I work on will always look like this.
I want to see women in power positions that men have held captive for so long."
For almost a decade, Teigen maintained a super slender physique for swimsuit modeling. She
confessed to Glamour,
"I used to weigh myself every morning, afternoon and night. I did that for eight years and
had this one weight I wanted to be at."
"His vision, it comes with a price, but it's worth it."
But these days, Teigen is showing herself a lot more love in the body department. And
while she does notice changes in her appearance now and then, she says she's at peace with
her ever-evolving shape. She said,
"I don't take the aesthetics so seriously now. It's very fulfilling not having that
pressure of putting on a swimsuit and looking good for a magazine while running around a
beach, which I did when I was modeling."
Teigen took time in 2020 to hone in on her mental health, seeing the craziness of the
year as an opportunity to seek some professional guidance. She told Marie Claire,
"I didn't start therapy until quarantine. I used to avoid it and make fun of the idea
of it, and then I found the right person and it changed my world."
In turn, while Teigen is known for being highly active on social media, she's dialed that
back in order to focus on herself more. She said,
"I'm barely online anymore, and that was at the request of my therapist. It's good for
me to take a break."
"You have to go rogue. You have to completely leave the grid."
While she made a name for herself primarily based on her looks, in 2020, Teigen decided
to have breast reduction surgery to ultimately remove her implants. And it appears that she
was more than ready to see them go. She revealed in a tweet,
"They've been great to me for many years but I'm just over it. I'd like to be able to zip
a dress in my size [and] lay on my belly with pure comfort!"
What Teigen didn't know was that when she underwent the procedure, she was already pregnant
with her third child — even though a pregnancy test she took beforehand had been negative.
Considering it was her first natural pregnancy, Teigen revealed just how personal the journey
to grow her family had really been. She shared in another tweet,
"A few weeks after surgery, I took a test. For many years now, I've taken pregnancy tests
almost every month, praying to see a positive one day."
But the happy news was quickly followed by a devastating turn of events.
Teigen lost her third child, Jack, at 20 weeks. The devoted mom had been on bedrest after
she was diagnosed with partial placenta abruption , a condition which causes bleeding in the
mother, and blocks oxygen flow to the baby. Naturally, Teigen and her family were devastated
when they found out little Jack wasn't going to make it. Teigen explained in a heartbreaking
post on Medium,
"I cried a little at first, then went into full blown convulsions of snot and tears,
my breath not able to catch up with my own incredibly deep sadness."
"The crazy thing about having a miscarriage is you don't walk away with anything. You
have this emptiness."
For as painful as the loss of their child was for the family, Teigen explained that
she was comforted by others who had shared similar tragedies. Revealing that even perfect
strangers had offered her notes or flowers to share their sympathies, Teigen told the
outlet,
"The moments of kindness have been nothing short of beautiful."
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