HELL FOR TEIGEN
Tells of being tailed by ‘nabe-watch-type’ guys in truck
Supermodel Chrissy Teigen’s had her share of racially charged incidents — some more frightening than others.
In Marie Claire’s new cover story, published Tuesday, the lifestyle maven opened up about a “horrifying” racist incident she and husband John Legend dealt with in 2010.
The power couple was in a “nicer neighborhood at night” in Fredericksburg, Va., and looking for the home of Legend’s godmother when a couple of white “neighborhood-watch-type” men began to follow the pair.
“These two guys were in a pickup truck slowly tailing us, flashing their lights and trying to speak to us,” Teigen, 34, 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 a—es 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. It was a terrible, scary experience.”
The “Lip Sync Battle” host said through tears that the ordeal was her “first taste of seeing what happens to Black men everyday.
“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.”
Teigen, who is of Norwegian-Thai ancestry, said that she and Legend want to make their children, 2-year-old son Miles and 4-year-old daughter Luna, aware of what sort of world they will inherit.
“Regardless of money or status, they’re always going to have their skin color,” she said. “When it comes to them being treated differently because of the color 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 color is Black. 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.”