Nearly a month after suffering a miscarriage, Chrissy Teigen is opening up about the tragic death of her son Jack.
In a lengthy letter on Medium, which she shared on Tuesday, the model started off by thanking everyone for their support and recounting the days leading up to the heartbreaking loss.
“My doctors diagnosed me with partial placenta abruption. I had always had placenta problems. I had to deliver Miles a month early because his stomach wasn’t getting enough food from my placenta,” said Teigen, who had to have “bags and bags of blood transfusions.” “After a couple nights at the hospital, my doctor told me exactly what I knew was coming — it was time to say goodbye. He just wouldn’t survive this, and if it went on any longer, I might not either.”
She explained why she asked her husband John Legend to take photos in the hospital despite his discomfort. “I explained to a very hesitant John that I needed them, and that I did NOT want to have to ever ask. That he just had to do it,” she said. “He hated it. I could tell. It didn’t make sense to him at the time. But I knew I needed to know of this moment forever, the same way I needed to remember us kissing at the end of the aisle, the same way I needed to remember our tears of joy after Luna and Miles. And I absolutely knew I needed to share this story.”
Teigen also had a message for those criticizing her decision to share her grief. “I cannot express how little I care that you hate the photos. 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.”
She went on to recall the heartbreaking moments after delivering Jack. “My mom, John and I each held him and said our own private goodbyes, mom sobbing through Thai prayer. I asked the nurses to show me his hands and feet and I kissed them over and over and over again. I have no idea when I stopped. It could have been 10 minutes or an hour.”
Added Teigen, “I dunno how long he had been waiting to be delivered for. That will probably always haunt me. Just writing it makes my nose and eyes tingle with tears. All I know now is his ashes are in a small box, waiting to be put into the soil of a tree in our new home, the one we got with his room in mind.”
But despite the tragedy, her heart remains full. “People say an experience like this creates a hole in your heart. A hole was certainly made, but it was filled with the love of something I loved so much. It doesn’t feel empty, this space. It feels full.”
Teigen, who revealed her pregnancy in Legend’s music video for “Wild,” also shared her regret over making her joy so public. “I feel bad our grief was so public because I made the joy so public. I was excited to share our news with the world. Stories leading up to this had been chronicled for all. It’s hard to look at them now. I was so positive it would be okay. I feel bad that I made you all feel bad. I always will.”
She decided to write the essay because “I needed to say something before I could move on from this and return back to life.”
“Jack will always be loved, explained to our kids as existing in the wind and trees and the butterflies they see,” Teigen concluded. “Thank you so much to every single person who has had us in their thoughts or gone as far as to send us your love and stories. We are so incredibly lucky.”