Chrissy Teigen Responds To Critics Accusing Her of ‘Using’ Her Miscarriage for Self-Promotion
Five months after losing her son Jack just 20 weeks into her pregnancy, Chrissy Teigen is addressing critics accusing her of “using” her painful experience for self-promotion.
On Saturday, Teigen tweeted about watching and enjoying the 2008 Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama.
“Watching Baby Mama again and Tina and Amy are just such an incredible pairing, always. They’re not on here but someone tells them that if they’re lookin’ for a ménage I got a tricycle,” joked Teigen.
That tweet prompted a commenter to respond, “So glad you’ve stopped using your terrible miscarriage as a means to keep promoting yourself.” An avid tweeter, Teigen soon responded with a simple, “Anything to please you, Katie.”
The cookbook author, who shares daughter Luna and son Miles with husband John Legend, got support from other members of the Hollywood community. Actress Patricia Arquette called the comment “intentionally cruel and ignorant,” while former The Good Place star Jameela Jamil urged, “delete this.”
“Disgusting,” added author and political commentator S.E. Cupp. “There’s a moral crisis in this country of people who get off by hurting other people they’ll never meet. We need to rediscover our empathy.”
Several Twitter users who have also experienced traumatic loss joined in to respond, thanking Teigen for speaking out so openly about her experience, and sharing how it helped them.
“Doubt you’ll see this but I want to thank you for speaking out. I lost a baby in June and you and your posts helped me through it,” read one comment. “I am pregnant again now (at 40! Yikes!) And hope every day that things will work out this time. Thanks for supporting me and others.”
“So many of us have been there, Chrissy,” read another. “Thank you for talking about miscarriages. Mine wasn’t nearly as far along as yours, but it was heartbreaking in its own way and I love that you are talking about it. Thank you so much!”
“What the hell is wrong with people? For the record, speaking as someone who has experienced pregnancy loss, some of us appreciated your openness and honesty. Any time someone with a platform speaks out about a difficult topic, it makes it that much easier for the rest of us,” wrote a commenter.
“Your honesty about your miscarriage did more good than you may ever know,” another fan shared. “Stay true to yourself and your voice.”
Teigen has been open about her grief since losing her third child on Sept. 30 following a partial placental abruption which bed rest, hospitalization and blood transfusions failed to heal. Despite her hardship, she recently shared that the experience made her a “better person.”
“It seems like so long ago,” Teigen said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show earlier this month. “Of course, everything was such a blur and thinking back to it now, I’m still in therapy about it and I’m still coming to terms with it in a way.”
She went on to say that she was “raised in a house that was very open about loss,” and that provided her with a strong perspective on the situation. “It was a really transformative thing for me,” Teigen said. “In a way, [Jack] really saved me because I don’t think that I would have discovered therapy and then sobriety and this path of really feeling good about myself and feeling like a new person.”
Teigen previously referenced those who have criticized her decision to share intimate details about her pregnancy loss; including photos of her in the hospital, in a personal essay for Medium published a month after losing Jack.
“I cannot express how little I care that you hate the photos,” she wrote. “How little I care that it’s something you wouldn’t have done. I lived it, I chose to do it, and more than anything, these photos aren’t for anyone but the people who have lived this or are curious enough to wonder what something like this is like. These photos are only for the people who need them. The thoughts of others do not matter to me.”