Tragic Details About Chrissy Teigen

On paper, model, TV presenter, and unofficial Twitter queen Chrissy Teigen lives a life straight out of a Hollywood fairytale. She's deeply in love with one of the most famous (not to mention handsome and romantic) singer-songwriters in the world: John Legend. Together, these lovebirds are one of the biggest and funniest power couples in the entertainment industry, who share two beautiful children who bring Teigen (and the internet) tons of joy. She's a former Sports Illustrated model who runs her own foodie community and cooking empire via her Cravings By Chrissy Teigen website. Plus, this multi-talented star has her mom and a team of assistants around to help her balance it all.

But there are hardships in life that even fame, money, and a loving family can't protect us from — and that includes beloved celebrities. Sadly, Teigen has endured some of the most difficult struggles any parent could possibly imagine, all while trying to keep a smile on her face and make us laugh in 280 characters or less. Let's take a look at some tragic details about Chrissy Teigen's life, because she may just need more support than you know.

In August 2020, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend brightened our time in quarantine with the announcement that they were expecting their third child via the EGOT winner's "Wild" music video. Soon after, Teigen revealed that her pregnancy was high-risk. She was on strict bed rest and later admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in an attempt to control heavy bleeding, even sharing that she had two blood transfusions.

Tragically, on Sept. 30, Teigen shared on Instagram that her pregnancy ended with the loss of their son, whom she and Legend named Jack. "We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we've never felt before," she wrote, alongside black-and-white photos from the hospital. "We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn't enough." Teigen's heartbreaking post implied that Jack died during or soon after birth. "To our Jack — I'm so sorry that the first few moments of your life were met with so many complications, that we couldn't give you the home you needed to survive," she continued. "We will always love you." 

Teigen displayed an immense amount of strength by sharing their loss, which was met with an outpouring of love and support from celebs and fans — but she's not alone. According to the CDC, "About 1 pregnancy in 100 at 20 weeks of pregnancy and later is affected by stillbirth."

In October 2020, Chrissy Teigen revealed her experience of losing baby Jack in an essay for Medium. She said she was diagnosed with a partial placenta abruption. She had previously chronicled her experience with bedrest and blood transfusions on Instagram, but doctors eventually told her he had to be delivered and wouldn't survive. "Oxygen was placed over my nose and mouth, and that was the first picture you saw. Utter and complete sadness," she wrote of receiving the news, referencing the post she made announcing her family's loss.

Teigen described saying goodbye to Jack after delivering him. "My mom, John and I each held him and said our own private goodbyes, mom sobbing through Thai prayer. I asked the nurses to show me his hands and feet and I kissed them over and over and over again. I have no idea when I stopped. It could have been 10 minutes or an hour." Though Teigen has predictably gotten criticism for sharing raw images of her loss, she said, "I cannot express how little I care that you hate the photos" and explained that, "These photos are only for the people who need them."

Teigen said that she'll explain to her children Luna and Miles Stephens that Jack exists in "the wind and trees and the butterflies they see." She said that rather than having "a hole in [her] heart," her heart feels full of love for all of her children.

Prior to losing baby Jack, Chrissy Teigen had been open about her struggles with infertility for a very long time. Her eldest children with husband John Legend, Luna and Miles Stephens, were conceived via IVF — and it wasn't an easy journey for the Lip Sync Battle star.

"When you go through IVF, it does feel like, 'Oh it's not fair I have to do all this.' Still, it's a complete miracle when it works," Teigen told The Cut in 2018. "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." Despite logically knowing that it wasn't her fault, Teigen admitted she felt guilty and thought about all of the ways she could've changed her behavior so that she'd get pregnant.

Problems conceiving affect both halves of a couple, and Legend opened up to Cosmopolitan about their IVF journey. "I think it's especially difficult when you can't conceive naturally," he said. "You want to feel like everything's working properly and want everything to be perfect, but sometimes it's not." In true Legend form, he remained mostly concerned about his wife. "I just want to support her. I want her to be happy and to live the fullest, most awesome life she can, and I want us to do it together," he continued.

According to PostpartumDepression.org, 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression (PPD) within a year of giving birth. When women who've miscarried or had a stillbirth are factored in, about 900,000 women in the U.S. have PPD annually. Yet, it's still quite difficult for mothers to talk openly about experiencing depression after having a child.

Helping to pave the way, Chrissy Teigen opened up to the whole world about her PPD in an essay for Glamour, detailing what being a new mom to her daughter, Luna, actually felt like. For one thing, her diagnosis also included anxiety, so she had a lot of physical symptoms. "I was different than before. Getting out of bed to get to set [of Lip Sync Battle] on time was painful," Teigen wrote. "My lower back throbbed; my ­shoulders — even my wrists — hurt. I didn't have an appetite." She revealed that she would snap at people, spontaneously cry often, leave robes in the kitchen so she wouldn't have to go upstairs, and was generally "not enjoying life."

"To have people that you respect, who are the best in the business, witness you at your worst is tough," Teigen continued. While the cookbook author is very aware of how charmed her life is, she added, "But postpartum does not discriminate. I couldn't control it." That said, Teigen did not speak out for sympathy: "I want people to know it can happen to anybody and I don't want people who have it to feel embarrassed or to feel alone."

Chrissy Teigen's first modeling campaign was for Billabong, and the camera guy on the shoot suggested she be John Legend's love interest in his music video for "Stereo." We could say the rest is history, but that implies success came easily to Teigen since her relationship with her future husband began — and that isn't exactly true. 

While she admitted to Vanity Fair that Legend would send her money sometimes, the model also said, "I knew exactly how much it was with tax to get a McDouble and fries," admitting, "I had no credit cards, I didn't have a bank account, and it just didn't occur to me to ask my dad for money." Teigen has chosen her work carefully: With Legend by her side, she landed her first Sports Illustrated cover in 2010, but told Vanity Fair that she's turned down late-night hosting gigs on iconic shows in favor of hosting reality shows like Lip Sync Battle. "It's almost like the more things you do, the closer you are to getting canceled," she explained. "It's so scary to me — to have the world turn on you and hate you."

While Teigen's aware that being with Legend has helped her career, she told Cosmopolitan, "I don't want to be thought of as just John's wife, so I'm trying to make a name without it, which is hard in its own way." We think you're doing just fine, Chrissy!

Chrissy Teigen has a close relationship with her mother, Vilailuck "Pepper" Teigen, these days: Pepper lives with Chrissy and husband John Legend to help take care of their young kids. But this mother-daughter duo revealed to Vanity Fair that things haven't always been easy due to past trauma and feelings of abandonment. 

When Chrissy was in high school, Pepper "disappeared from her life," the outlet reports, as she would regularly return to Thailand to care for her ailing parents. After they both suffered traumatic deaths in the span of just a few months, Pepper battled severe depression and didn't return to the States for a long time. "I never knew what depression is," Pepper said. "Sometimes I thought about killing myself because I know that my girls are mad at me."

During this time, per the magazine, "No one discussed why [Chrissy's] dad took years to bring her mother home, and Teigen couldn't bear the risk of hurting anyone with questions." For her part, Chrissy doesn't talk or think about her motherless period much, but she does have anxiety, which makes remembering extremely bad or good times difficult — even including her wedding day. "I think I'm such an open person now because everyone in my family has always been so hush-hush," Chrissy told Vanity Fair. "I love attention and affection. I want to be direct with everyone."

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

Amidst being a new mom with a bright spotlight on her, Chrissy Teigen admitted to Cosmopolitan in 2017, "I was, point blank, just drinking too much." As the model explained, the celebrity lifestyle makes that very easy to do. "I got used to being in hair and makeup and having a glass of wine. Then that glass of wine would carry over into me having one before the awards show," she continued. "And then a bunch at the awards show. And then I felt bad for making kind of an a** of myself to people that I really respected. And that feeling, there's just nothing like that. You feel horrible. It's not a good look for me, for John, for anybody."

Teigen classified herself as a person who "can't just have one drink." Combined with a family history of alcohol abuse and the anxiety medication she was taking for her postpartum depression, she revealed that she began to worry for her health. "Nobody really brought it up to me," the TV personality said. "I knew in my heart it wasn't right." The loving mom was also motivated by the fact that she and husband John Legend were planning to go through IVF again to have their son, Miles.

It takes strength to overcome issues with alcohol, and we're proud of Teigen for speaking so openly on the matter.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse and mental health, please contact SAMHSA's 24-hour National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Chrissy Teigen has worked hard to become a cookbook author with a brand outside of modeling and being known as John Legend's wife. And considering the fact that she makes about $12 million a year on her own, this multi-talent is doing fine. But not everyone in the culinary world appears to respect Teigen. 

In May 2020, The New York Times food writer Alison Roman infamously commented to the The New Consumer on Teigen's success following her Cravings cookbook. While the quote has since been deleted from the original story, we retrieved it via Vox: "[Teigen] had a successful cookbook. And then it was like: Boom. Line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it's just, like, people running a content farm for her. That horrifies me and it's not something that I ever want to do. I don't aspire to that."

Roman's comments sparked controversy — and a response from Teigen. "This is a huge bummer and hit me hard. I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews," Teigen said in a series of tweets. "... I just had no idea I was perceived that way, by her especially." The racial implications of Roman's comments were also reported on, and despite Teigen accepting her public apology, Roman's column was placed "on temporary leave." Of Roman's consequences, Teigen tweeted, "I don't like this one bit." 

No one writes a tweet quite like Chrissy Teigen, so it sadly makes sense that no one gets trolled on Twitter quite like she does either. The popular model has been blocked by President Donald Trump, who also called her a "filthy-mouthed wife" in a 2019 tweet, on the platform. But as Teigen told Vanity Fair, "I don't care about pissing off a bunch of bigots."

But in addition to POTUS' ire, Teigen's been trolled in more personal ways by the public at large. Because she's not shy about what she eats, for example, she's often targeted about her weight, as reported by The New York Times. However, it's been the comments criticizing her and husband John Legend's use of IVF that took trolling to a whole new — and incredibly mean — level for Teigen. The model, who is famously candid and rarely has the occasion to delete tweets, has sometimes erased her own responses to comments about her fertility struggle. After a Twitter used named Linda asked why she didn't "give it a minute to try naturally," per Glamour, Teigen wrote, "Hi Linda, thanks for asking, you complete witch. I tried for about 9 years. Anything else, let me know!" 

We don't blame the star for getting snippy. Strangers criticizing personal choices must get so exhausting. Teigen has called people on the internet "little thieves of joy" and has certainly earned the right to her opinion. 

We can't stress enough how wrong it is to fat-shame anyone, and that very much includes celebrities like Chrissy Teigen — even if she does have loud, epic clap-backs. When someone tweeted "chubby needs to get to the gym," Teigen turned the tables on them, responding with, "I hate to say this but...you are not a small person? also I don't care about my weight sooooo this does not hurt."

There is evidence to suggest that we care though, even if Teigen can brush it off. As reported by the New York Post, a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin examined 20 instances of public fat-shaming of well-known females and found that even if their response to the shame is empowering, it makes women feel more self-conscious. "These cultural messages appeared to augment women's gut-level feeling that 'thin' is good and 'fat' is bad," the study's co-author, Jennifer Bartz, told the outlet. "These media messages can leave a private trace in people's minds."

So, how does Teigen brush off negative feelings about her body? "If you hear the same comment over and over again, it gets to you. But when you are happy in other aspects of your life, you care less about it," she told Glamour. "I'm already thinking enough things I am mad at myself about, I can't add my body into it."

Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend were named in the debunked "Pizzagate" theory that began in 2016. In short, members of the Democratic party — including then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — were falsely accused of running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong by members of the alt-right ... because that doesn't sound like the plot of a bad science fiction movie at all.

As reported by Today, Teigen and Legend had to threaten legal action against Liz Crokin, a "columnist" who implicated the couple in the debunked ring, using a now-deleted tweet featuring a pizza emoji and a picture of their daughter, Luna. When Teigen questioned Corkin on Twitter, she responded (via Today), "Chrissy you run in circle with people who rape, torture, and traffic kids. This is a fact. I expose sex trafficking for a living." Corkin's "verified" status on the platform was later revoked.

During the time of the "pizzagate insanity," Teigen wrote in a September 2020 Instagram post while promoting a Marie Claire cover story, she "was struggling hard with some deep dark internet/real life days." As she told the magazine, this eventually prompted her to seek help: "I'm barely online anymore, and that was at the request of my therapist. 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."