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The Super Hollywood (and Romantic!) Way John Legend & Chrissy Teigen Met 17 Years Ago
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend turned a self-professed hook-up into an enviable romance and marriage.
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are known far and wide as the epitome of relationship goals. The two met over 15 years ago, and although they had a few bumps in the road, they remain as in love as ever as they recently vacationed with the whole family in tow.
The happy couple will have their hands full this fall with four kids — two babies! — as the “All of Me” singer returns as a Coach this fall on Season 24 of The Voice. But while we're sure Legend is excited to return to The Voice, we imagine the most exciting moment for him this year will be celebrating his 10-year wedding anniversary with Teigen.
Let's look back at their relationship timeline before that milestone.
How did John Legend and Chrissy Teigen meet?
The couple first laid eyes on each other when the then-21-year-old Teigen was working as a catalog model and was cast in the music video for Legend’s hit “Stereo,” according to Cosmopolitan.
“I walked into John’s dressing room to meet him, and he was ironing his underwear,” she told the magazine. “I said, ‘You do your own ironing!?’ He said, ‘Of course I do.’ I gave him a hug.”
From there, the couple famously turned what could have been a one-night stand into a love story. Teigen revealed to Cosmo the two ate In-N-Out burgers after the music video shoot in his hotel room, adding, “I’m not going to lie — we hooked up.”
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But the couple hit their first test when Legend went on tour soon after their hookup, with Teigen saying it wasn’t a serious relationship at first.
“I let him be himself for a while,” she told Cosmo. “The worst thing you can do is try to lock someone like that down early on, then have them think, ‘There’s so much more out there.’ I played it cool for a long time.”
Legend admitted much of their early relationship was texting and chatting on the phone.
“I fell in love with her over the phone because she is good with those 140 characters,” Legend told Entertainment Tonight. “I started to see her sense of humor. We would talk on the phone, and I started to fall in love with how engaging and witty and funny she is.”
The two took a brief pause when Legend got sick while on tour and broke up with Teigen for one day, she told Cosmo.
“I always joke, ‘Remember when you tried to break up with me?’” Teigen said to the magazine. “He’s like, ‘Yes, sorry. Big mistake.”
The two reunited, and tt was during a trip to Lake Como, Italy in 2007 that Teigen realized she wanted to marry Legend.
“A boat tour guide took us to a little spot on the lake, and told us to make a wish,” Teigen recalled in an Instagram post in July 2016. “I asked for this to be the man I marry and have children with. I think John asked for the most perfect bite of cacio e pepe. Both came true, and here we are.”
How did John Legend propose to Chrissy Teigen?
Legend popped the question during a Maldives vacation in December 2011, after about four years of dating — but the proposal was almost ruined by a fight and TSA.
“I remember we got into a very big fight in the car on the way to the airport because we had opened our presents beforehand, and he had only gotten me a cookbook and a crock pot,” Teigen said to Time magazine.
Legend told Time the surprise was almost soured when TSA wanted to look through his carry-on bag at airport security.
“Chrissy was standing right next to me, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve hid it so well this whole time,” Legend said. “Now as we’re just about to get to the Maldives she’s going to find out I have a ring in this box and it’s going to ruin the surprise and I’ll have to get on my knees at the airport.”
RELATED: John Legend Gets Candid on 'Challenges' He and Chrissy Faced on Path to Parenthood
Teigen said Legend planned a beautiful Christmas in the Maldives — knowing that she loves the holiday.
“This waiter comes out with a silver dome for dessert…so he opens up the dome and a ton of arugula falls out and then I kind of fish in it,” Teigen told Time. “And I see the little box and then you know, your heart stops, and you get so excited. There was no big grand speech or anything. I think it was just very lovely and sweet.”
What is the meaning behind the "All Of Me" music video?
Arguably one of Legend’s most famous ballads, “All of Me” is not surprisingly dedicated to his then-fiancée, Teigen, and Teigen knew it was about her from the moment she heard it.
“The first line of it is ‘What would I do without your smart mouth,’ so if that’s not about me, I don’t know what is,” she told the Huffington Post.
Teigen added the song brought her to tears when she first heard it.
“I did cry when I heard it,” she said. “I’m emotional, but like I don’t really cry at things like that, so yeah, it was beautiful. And live it’s pretty unreal.”
Teigen also starred in the music video for the song — a throwback to how the couple met — with her engagement ring on full display. The video was shot in Lake Como leading up to the couple’s wedding, and ends with actual footage from their wedding day.
Where did John Legend and Chrissy Teigen get married?
The two got married at Villa Pizzo in Lake Como, Italy on September 14, 2013.
Teigen shared a gorgeous shot of her in her tulle-studded Vera Wang wedding gown on her Instagram on September 15, 2013, one day after her picture-perfect ceremony with Legend.
But the two were actually already legally married by the time they said their vows at Lake Como. They officially tied the knot at the courthouse after attending the Vera Wang show during New York Fashion Week.
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“We are dumb and didn’t realize that our Italian wedding would not be recognized unless we had a real ceremony in New York City,” Teigen said to E! News.
Teigen had two wardrobe changes during the wedding, as she showed another picture of herself on Instagram with her new hubby in a different Vera Wang dress, this one a mermaid gown, captioned, “My cherie amour.” Teigen changed into a third Vera Wang gown, in a shade of crimson, for the after-party.
The pair had their wedding at Villa Pizzo — and showed off a stunning view of Lake Como behind them during the ceremony, according to Brides. Stevie Wonder, and of course the groom, were among the live performances at the reception, with Legend singing his love ballad “All of Me” to his new bride.
The wedding wasn’t complete without a four-tiered carrot wedding cake, which Teigen also showed off on her Instagram.
How many children do John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have?
Teigen and Legend have been open about their struggles to start a family, and the model admitted to Tyra Banks in an interview they’d been seeing fertility doctors, according to NBC Insider reporting.
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They welcomed their oldest child, Luna Simone Stephens, on April 14, 2016. She was followed by Miles Theodore — the couple’s second child conceived through IVF — on May 17, 2018.
Teigen then became pregnant without IVF in 2020, but the couple lost the baby, whom they’d named Jack, in the fall.
Legend and Teigen remained determined to have more children, and on Jan. 13, 2023, their rainbow baby, Esti Maxine, was born. But only a few months after welcoming Esti, the couple surprised everyone by announcing their surrogate, Alexandra, gave birth to a baby boy named Wren Alexander on June 19, 2023.
“Our hearts, and our home, are officially full,” Teigen wrote in an Instagram post in June. “And to our Jack, we know both their angel kisses are from you.”
The couple is now busy with four kids, and Teigen continues to post updates of their happy and chaotic life with two babies.
Watch John Legend’s comeback as a Coach when Season 24 of The Voice returns this fall. Cach up on past seasons of The Voice now on Peacock.
