John Legend insists it “made sense” for his wife Chrissy Teigen to detail the heartbreaking loss of their son on social media.
The couple were left devastated when they lost their son Jack 20 weeks into her pregnancy and Teigen opened up about their pain in a series of online posts, as well as a poignant essay which described her experience in hospital, and now Legend has defended her decision to share such intimate details of the tragedy.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the singer explained the loss of Jack was tough on both of them. He said: “It’s hard because you feel - especially being the man in the relationship, not carrying the baby yourself - you feel this strong sense of grief but also this powerlessness, because you want to be there to protect, you want to be there to help, but you literally can’t do anything to really solve the core problem here.
“So it was just heartbreaking. We felt powerless, and it was a deep, deep grief. Deep challenge, deep pain ... We were able to get through it, but it was tough.”
When asked about why they chose to be so open about the tragedy, Legend went on: “Honestly, us talking about it publicly created this sense of community because you start to realise how many other people have gone through it - and it’s way more than you think.
“People would send books, people would send flowers, people cared. It made a lot of people who didn’t usually talk about this publicly - or didn’t usually talk about it even among their larger friend groups - feel more comfortable talking about it, and feel like they weren’t alone in that situation.”
The All Of Me star added: “It was Chrissy’s idea to share it. And it was right in the heart of our grief, so it’s kind of courageous that she was even able to think about that.
“She’d been sharing her journey through pregnancy … When it started getting complicated and she had to be in bed rest and we were trying to save the pregnancy, she was sharing all that.
“So it would have been weird to not share the outcome, ‘cause then it’s just like the baby just disappeared and there’s no explanation. So it made sense to share it, but it was still hard.”
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are parents to three children. Their youngest daughter Esti was born in January 2023.
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