John Legend: I 'Value' Chrissy 'More' After Overcoming Pregnancy Loss
A new perspective. John Legend opened up about how he and pregnant Chrissy Teigen were able to rebuild after the loss of son Jack — and how their grief made their bond even stronger.
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“When we first met, we were like, very attracted to each other, our chemistry was great, but that level of attraction is more like infatuation at the beginning of a relationship,” the EGOT winner, 43, recalled on the Monday, October 17, episode of the “On Purpose With Jay Shetty” podcast. “And love when it is able to stand the test of time, it has to be deeper and more real than that. We’ve been through enough together where it’s really fortified us and made us stronger. Those tests have made us grow together and realize things about each other that we didn’t know. … I think she’s cooler now than I ever thought she was. I just really have seen her in all kinds of situations. I just value her more, and in awe of her more than I ever have been.”
Legend explained that the couple’s hardship helped inspire one of his new songs, “I Don’t Love You Like I Used To,” because their relationship feels “different now but it’s better.”
The Voice alum and the Cravings cookbook author, 36, got engaged in 2011 after four years of dating and tied the knot in 2013. Legend confessed on Monday that he was “selfish” in the early days of the duo’s romance.
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“I wasn’t a great partner at the beginning of our relationship,” he said. “Even though I was very into her and very excited to be with her. I was still selfish. I was in my mid-20s, still not ready to fully be the committed partner that I am now. … Once you really figure out that you love someone and you really love so much about them and you really want to make it work with that person, like you have to decide, I’m going to do the things that I need to do to be a good partner in this relationship. And I’ve just grown as a person ’cause of that too.”
Earlier this year, the twosome — who share daughter Luna, 6, and son Miles, 4 — announced Teigen is pregnant with another child after son Jack died in 2020 due to complications with the model’s placenta. While she initially described the loss as a miscarriage at 20 weeks, the Lip Sync Battle alum recently reframed the experience, stating in September that she had an abortion.
Since going public with their fertility ups and downs, the “Pieces” artist has frequently praised his wife’s strength. “I’ve seen so much growth through our grief and through our tragedy,” Legend said on the podcast. “It’s always going to be a part of who we are and I’m fine with that. It’s part of who we are. We carry it with us and it’s OK. You also have to commit to working through pain, and I think that we both committed to doing it.”
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Despite their family’s “deep grief,” the pair have turned their “focus” to the positives in their life — and their relationship has benefitted from their shared experience. “I’ve just learned so much about her personality, how she reacts to stress, how she reacts to life, how she can find a joke even in like the craziest, even in grief, she’s able to find humor,” the songwriter gushed. “I think you see so many things about your partner as you grow together and as you experience adversity together and what I’ve seen from her just made me love her more and value her more.”
As they await their little one’s arrival, the “All of Me” artist and the Chrissy’s Court host are mulling over the idea of welcoming more kids. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time with our kids now, Luna is 6 and Miles is 4, so we’ve grown as parents and we’re ready to bring another baby into the world,” Legend hinted on Audacity’s “Check In” podcast in September. “I could see us going for four.”
