Chrissy Teigen has opened up about encountering racism with her husband John Legend, calling an experience where they were followed by a car “scary”.
In a new cover story for Marie Claire, the Cravings author revealed that she and Legend were once followed and harassed by two white men while driving in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 2010.
“We were in a nicer neighborhood at night, driving slowly, looking for John’s godmother’s home. These two guys were in a pickup truck slowly tailing us, flashing their lights and trying to speak to us," Teigen recalled. “When we pulled over, they were like: ‘What are you guys looking for?’ and we gave them the address.
“They literally said: ‘Get your asses out of here!’ and proceeded to follow us all the way into her driveway. They got out of the car and stared at us as we knocked on the door and went inside."
Calling the encounter a “terrible, scary experience,” Teigen told the outlet that it was her “first taste of seeing what happens to black men every day”.
“It was horrifying and could have gone wrong so quickly,” she continued. “I was sobbing afterward for hours, and I noticed John wasn’t emotional about it. Seeing that he wasn’t very thrown by it was really upsetting because he obviously had experienced it before."
During the interview, Teigen, who is currently pregnant with the couple’s third child, also opened up about teaching her and Legend’s children, Luna, four, and Miles, two, about racism.
“There are books that I read when I became a mom that would explain to them hard and traumatic situations. But it’s really hard to teach them about their privilege; there are no books for that. But regardless of money or status, they’re always going to have their skin colour,” Teigen told the outlet, adding that she will look to Legend for help.
“When it comes to them being treated differently because of the colour of their skin, I’m going to look to John for a lot of help with that because while they are Asian and white too, their skin colour is black,” she said. “We just try to talk to them like little adults, saying it in words they’ll understand, making it known that it’s very serious, and letting them ask as many questions as they need.”
As for her hopes for the future, the cookbook author said she is going to “fight” to get President Trump voted out of office in the upcoming election - as she believes the Trump presidency has contributed to racism in the country.
“People are very confident in their ways of being open about their racism because they have the backing views of the president," she said. “It’s become such a hurtful, weird presidency for so many Americans, and I’m going to fight to get this person out of office because I can’t live another four years with this kind of hatred boiling through America."
