seize a moment. “Nothing scares me,” he
says. “Except maybe death?”
Meanwhile, Teigen has a catalog of
worst-case scenarios she can’t stop scroll-
ing through in her mind: “I’ll get a new
dog and be like, This dog is going to die in
my lifetime. The second we land some-
where on vacation I think, Oh, it’s going
to be so sad to pack. I’ve never said, ‘Oh,
I’m so excited for this job.’ I’m more, One
day it’s just going to end.” Even social
media is filled with dread. “She’s already
thinking about what a hater might say,”
says Legend. They both wonder some-
times about their habit of posting their
kids’ pictures online. “I know a lot of
people who make the conscious decision
to blur out their kids’ faces,” says Teigen.
“I worry, What must they think of me?
They must think I’m insane.”
In the past year Teigen was asked to
host a high-profile nighttime talk show,
at a time when the terrain could badly use
a female voice. She turned it down. “It
was just too much attention and focus on
me,” she says. “It’s almost like the more
things you do, the closer you are to getting
canceled. It’s so scary to me—to have the
world turn on you and hate you.”
“You honestly have nothing to worry
about, bottom line. And who’s really got-
ten canceled?” Legend asks. “The audi-
ence does a balancing act of ‘Does what
this person bring to culture outweigh the
negatives they’ve done?’ Like, the guy
they just kicked off of SNL before the
season started? He was making a bunch
of unfunny jokes and people were like,
‘What is he bringing to SNL that’s worth
hiring a racist?’ ”
Teigen nods. “Yeah, it’s not like the
entertainment industry is some God-
given right.” And let it be known, she
clarifies, she is by no means devoid of
ambition. “I’m anxious but I still have
an ego. I feel like opportunities will
come back to me when I’m more ready
and more stable.” For now, Teigen will
stick to supporting roles on TV gigs like
Lip Sync Battle and Bring the Funny, plus
launching a new website for fans of her
cookbooks. Her dream down the road,
besides a third baby, is to cohost a night-
time variety show with her husband.
Later, in private, she can’t help but snark
on their love. “There are some famous
couples I look at and I’m like, ‘Ugh, we get
it. Stop trying so hard, you’re so lame.’ I
think people definitely think that about us
but...that’s because I think of everything.”T
heir closest friends are not
famous. While Teigen has her
daily “text commune,” Legend
obsesses over news in a group
chat with some New York guys from his
consultant days. He’s in two fantasy foot-
ball leagues. The couple has spent Easter
with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in
the past, but they’re not best buddies.
“I’m not trying to disown Kanye because
I still love him and love everything we’ve
done together creatively,” he says. “But
we were never the closest of friends.”
In private texts that West later shared
publicly, Legend cautioned against his
friend’s feckless loyalty to Trump. “I
think what was always challenging about
it was Kanye has never been political,” he
says. “I don’t think he knows one way or
another what policies of Trump’s he likes.
He just kind of embraced Trump’s blow-
it-all-up spirit and the energy of himself
being countercultural in supporting
him.” Legend’s calm beseeching of West
to think deeper in those texts was moving
in its wisdom and lack of condemnation.
“John was able to respond to him with
brotherly insight and perspective,” says
Common. “He was giving him the truth
and not everybody has the heart to tell
you the truth. And John did it with love.”
Of Kardashian’s visits to the White
House, on behalf of inmates deserving
clemency, Teigen and Legend are torn.
“It’s a cheap win for [Trump],” says
Legend. “But the people being granted
clemency are real people with families.
So even if the clemency is won through
his celebrity-whore tendencies, it’s still
helpful for that family and that person. At
the same time, he’s locking kids in cages
and he’s a terrible human being....”
“To be able to go in there and put what-
ever you hate about him aside to do this
greater good for this person?” says Tei-
gen. “I don’t know if I could physically
muster that smile and handshake.”
Over three days of conversations, news
of the impeachment inquiry intensifies,and the couple allow themselves some
optimism. But neither believe impeach-
ment is enough. “I think there needs to
be jail time for him, for the whole fam-
ily,” says Teigen. “I feel like he still gets
away with everything if he gets out of his
office. I know that his first tweet after
he’s impeached will be, ‘I didn’t want to
be there anyway.’ ”
In the meantime, hope abides. Legend’s
mother is getting straight A’s in her col-
lege accounting classes. Teigen’s mother
brought her parents’ ashes to America and
takes Luna to the temple
every week so they can
offer fruits and flow-
ers in their memory.
Recently, Pepper and
Phyllis visited Pepper’s
hometown in Thailand. “My mother loves
to take care of people,” Teigen says of
the friendship. Legend laughs: “And my
mother loves to be taken care of.”A
fter Teigen finished giving the
house tour that Sunday, little
Miles tried to ride a stuffed tiger
and scribbled happily over this
reporter’s notebook. Teigen would make
ravioli and squash blossoms for dinner,
but first she dug into her Postmates chick-
en Dijon panini. “Do you want half of
this?” she asked her guest. No, but thank
you. “But it’s so good, I’m giving you half.”
Legend had gone swimming with
Luna, as promised, but soon he was back
with a towel around his wet shoulders.
“The water was too cold,” he said, shak-
ing his head. “It’s warming up now. I can
feel the hot water coming in but...” Luna
looked glum behind him, her wet suit
peeled off in a sad puddle at her feet.
“Tomorrow!” Teigen yelled from the
kitchen. “We’ll try again tomorrow!”
Legend leaned down to Luna, who
wanted more from this day. “Did you
hear that? It will be better tomorrow,”
he promised his daughter. “Tomorrow,
we rise and shine.”For more
exclusive John
and Chrissy
content,
head to VF.com.At an event, Legend and
former president Obama joked
about how “our wives are
more loved than we are now.”
DECEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR 75HAIR BY KEVIN RYAN; MAKEUP BY SAR
AH TANNO; MANICURE BY ASHLIE JOHNSON; BARBER,
RON STEPHENS II; GROOMING BY AUTUMN MOULTRIE;
TAILOR, YELENA TRAVKINA; SET DESIGN BY GILLES MILLS; PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY COCOKNUDSON; FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS