me to ask my dad for money,” she says.
“I knew exactly how much it was with tax
to get a McDouble and fries.” Occasion-
ally, Legend wired money for Teigen to
a nearby Western Union. When he came
to Miami for a show, he’d book a room
at the Ritz-Carlton; after he left, Teigen
would invite her roommates over to raid
the minibar and use the hotel pool.
Teigen says that because of her anxiety,
she can’t hold on to memories of trauma
or even triumph. Her wedding is a blur, as
is the period during high school when her
mother disappeared from her life. Teigen
only thinks about the fact that she was
motherless for a long time when Legend
talks about his own childhood. No one dis-
cussed why her dad took years to bring her
mother home, and Teigen couldn’t bear
the risk of hurting anyone with questions.
“She just wants to hold my hand again and
drag me around everywhere,” says Pepper,
wiping her tears, smiling with gratitude at
her daughter. “Even now, you know, she’s
like ‘Mom, let’s go to Rodeo Drive!’”
“I think I’m such an open person now
because everyone in my family has always
been so hush-hush,” says Teigen. “I love
attention and affection. I want to be direct
with everyone.” How else does a person
get nearly 12 million Twitter followers?
O
n any given evening, Legend
will be tweeting about public
policy while Teigen is posting
about the video game she’sobsessed with or the pimple on her chin.
“You know how some couples take
years to allow themselves to be the fullest
versions of themselves?” says Brooklyn
Decker, who was a bridesmaid at their
wedding. “Early on, there’s this knee-jerk
habit to quiet the other, like, ‘No, no, no,
don’t show that side of yourself.’ And then
only decades later does each person say,
‘Well, I’m never going to change them.’
It’s always seemed to me that that’s just
how they started their relationship.”
“What makes them the perfect cou-
ple,” adds Yashar Ali, “is their lack of
interest in appearing to be perfect.”
Legend is a natural optimist. He knows
the proudest moment of his career—
performing “Glory” from Selma along-
side his friend Common on the Oscars
stage and then delivering an impassioned
speech in which he called attention to the
fact that there are more black men “under
correctional control today than there
were under slavery in 1850.” The man can
72 VANITY FAIR