I Feel Sorry For John Legend — He Shouldn't Be Bullied Because Chrissy Teigen Is His Wife
He's giving all of him to all of her, just like he promised.
A.PAES / Shutterstock.com Following yet another post on Chrissy Teigen’s instagram about being canceled (and apparently having learned so much from it), John Legend started trending on Twitter — and not for positive reasons.
People are now taking fire at Legend, 42, for being — and staying — married to Teigen, saying that since he chose to marry her, his values must align with hers.
While not quite as vilified as his wife, there’s a lot of hate and ridicule being directed towards Legend — and I don’t think he deserves any of it.
I mean, it’s not his fault his wife is mean, right?
Teigen was riding the high of toxic Twitter and flew a little too close to the sun. She said a bunch of very hurtful things, even going as far as telling Courtney Stodden they should kill themselves.
These actions are definitely unforgivable, but I can forgive John Legend for sticking by the woman he loves, who has “all of him.”
“Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections,” Legend wrote about Teigen in “All of Me” — his most famous a song and one that was inspired by his then fiancé, now wife.
Judging by the fact that he’s been with her for so long and stayed by her side through all of her controversies, he really means it.
The two met in 2006, became engaged in 2011 and married almost 9 years ago, in September 2013.
The share two children — Luna, 5, and Miles, 3 — and together they endured the loss of an unborn son they had named Jack, who was stillborn in late 2020.
Some on Twitter have made statements asserting that “Who you marry is a direct reflection of your values," implying that John Legend must defacto be of the same mind as Teigen on all matters, including whatever motivated her admitting bullying.
I hardcore disagree with this.
When they first got together, none of these controversies or bullying had happened. In fact, Twitter had just barely been born.
Teigen joined the platform in 2009.
The first reported incident of Teigen seeming to bully people in Tweets happened in 2011, when she mocked Linday Lohan in a since-deleted post that said, “Lindsay adds a few more slits to her wrists when she sees emma stone.”
The next was in 2013, when she tweeted at "Teen Mom" star Farrah Abraham that she is a "whore," adding, "everyone hates you." That tweet has also been deleted.
But overall back then, most of what Teigen posted delighted the world, with GQ writing in 2013, “Teigen’s assault of awesomeness starts in person with her ceaseless foodie chatter and continues on her nervy Twitter feed.”
People change.
Do I know Teigen personally to say that she was probably a good person before she began her rampage? No, definitely not.
But I do believe that had she always been that mean-spirited person, John Legend — who appears to be a perfectly sane human being — probably wouldn’t have tied the knot with her.
And John Legend is a good person, on record.
He’s been advocating for the end of poverty for over a decade now and started a new charity a year ago that provides resources for sick and injured children.
He’s supported several well-known charities and is said to be an all-around nice guy.
If anything, John Legend is a victim here.
He loves his wife, but the entire internet doesn’t, and in the internet age that we live in, that can be a problem for him.
Just a few days ago, Legend was seen at the premiere for the new Space Jam movie without Teigen by his side.
It’s unsure why she wasn’t there with him, but some are speculating that it has something to do with all of the bad press she’s been getting and that she doesn’t want to rain on Legend’s parade, as he wrote the song “Crowd Go Crazy” for the soundtrack.
Back when the couple suffered a miscarriage, their marriage was believed to be on the ropes because Chrissy Teigen fell into a depression that weighed on the both of them, one similar to the depression she seems to have fallen into now following the cyberbullying scandal.
Teigen has made post after post about how awful she feels and how she wants to change and become a better person for her husband and kids — and I can’t help but feel like Legend has had an influence on that new direction.
While he has stayed awfully silent about himself and his relationship with his wife and her bullying controversies, Legend has remained by her side and helped her out of some muddy waters on Twitter.
"Being married to Chrissy and seeing some of the challenges that she has dealing with social media," Legend said back in May. "It's just harder for women, when it comes to that because there's a lot more scrutiny on the way they look and people feel much more comfortable being mean to them then they do to men. Just seeing the difference between the way I get treated and the way Chrissy does."
John Legend is a victim of being a good husband.
Do people expect him to just divorce his wife and the mother of his children over some hurtful things she has done to others in the past?
Like I said, people can change, and I’m sure that Legend is trying to support his wife and secure a good future for them and their children.
He might sometimes have to sit in the driveway for 30 minutes before going in every time he gets home.
But none of us know what either of them are really like behind closed doors in their own home.
And in all seriousness, he doesn’t deserve the hate that he’s been getting.
I respect John Legend for standing by his wife and helping her through whatever problems she struggles with.
It’s what’s best for the internet, his wife and his kids.
For better or for worse, til death do they part — remember?
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice and relationships.