John Legend's Tearful Tribute to Chrissy Teigen

Hello everyone!

[cheering]

I'm John.

I'm also known as Chrissy Teigen's trophy husband.

[cheering]

Sometimes Chrissy likes to take me out on the town

and show me off a little.

You know, nights like this one when people

are taking pictures.

I have a career in the music business

but we all know who the star of the family is.

She's the heart and soul of the family too,

I'm very much in love with this woman.

I mean, obviously, I guess, she is my wife.

And she is the mother of our daughter Luna

and our son Miles, but I am not the only one who loves her.

Many millions of people who are not married to her,

not related to her, they love her too.

Everywhere I go, I meet people, fans,

who used to ask me for an autograph or tell me

how much they love my music.

Now the number one comment I get from people

who used to be my fans is how much they love Chrissy.

She gets bigger cheers at my own concerts than I do.

They love her.

People love her honesty, her humor, her beauty and style,

her passion for food, her sense of adventure and fun,

and they love her big, beautiful heart,

the heart she wears on her sleeve.

She inspires so many people, so many women.

I mean, really, she's the kind of woman

you write songs about.

Have you heard any songs about Chrissy Teigen before?

One of them went to number one on the billboard charts.

Well this is about Chrissy.

Sometimes, social media feels like it's going to be

the death of our civilization,

but it has not been a complete fail.

Hear me out here.

The only good argument for the internet has been

that if it were not for the internet,

I think the world may have missed out

on Chrissy's awesomeness.

She would have never fully shone the way she does

if she were filtered by publicists and handlers,

I'm sorry Marisa.

Publicists are great, magazines are wonderful.

But Chrissy's social media presence has allowed people

to see her.

Her biggest impact may be the way that she proves

that just by being the person you are, being who you are,

unapologetically, you can make a difference.

She's been named the mayor of the internet by some.

She's been blocked by the shittiest person on the internet.

[cheering]

I don't have to say his name.

If you speak up about the things that you believe in,

whether it's immigrants' rights, post-partum depression,

or the joys of chicken pot pie,

and if you do it authentically and without presumption,

you can enlighten other people,

you can brighten people's day.

What a gift that is, and what a time to do it, right now,

when it's so important to amplify voices of reason,

not shut them down.

In her Glamour profile, she talked about a time,

we were at this big event and she was crying

in a dressing room because she felt so overwhelmed.

She was in such illustrious company,

we were celebrating the Time 100 and she felt like

she didn't belong, like she didn't belong in the company

of people like Oprah and Michelle Obama

and Christine Lagarde.

Well I'm here to say that you belong here

and I think it's become very clear to Glamour Magazine

and many millions of people around the world

that you're more than worthy of this honor tonight.

I am amazed by the woman that you've become

and I'm truly glad that the rest of the world

has finally found out about it too.

Please welcome 2018 Glamour Woman of the Year,

my woman of the year every year, Chrissy Teigen.

[upbeat music]

[cheering]

No I wanna hold it!

[laughs]

Hi.

I was ready to be the light-hearted one

and come up and just be funny and then trot off,

but honestly, John didn't cry when I gave birth.

[laughs]

Actually you cried during Benjamin Button

and then you cried.

[John] I cried for Miles, I didn't cry for Luna.

You cried for Miles and then something else,

oh Sesame Street, something for Sesame Street.

But that was beautiful, thank you so much.

Wow.

So thank you first of all to Glamour, this is incredible.

Like I said in the video, I never thought I'd

be the kind of person that would win anything,

I was used to seeing John do it and I was used to being

on his arm and I was excited to do that

and I was excited to support him and be there

but this is an honor and I am completely humbled by it

because truly the line-up of people in this room

is incredible, it's embarrassing to sit here

around these people, and when John was talking

about that event, I'm actually mad at you,

because I was gonna talk about that event.

Because it still sticks out in my mind so much,

it was like a decade ago, and I had walked into

this incredible event and just sat in this,

just around this incredible table of these people

that were so amazing and so inspiring

and they were all doing something,

and we were all asking each other what they did

except one was like Oprah and one was like,

I mean, it was a crazy line-up.

And when it got to me, they asked what I did,

and I said I didn't know, and I didn't know, sorry.

I didn't know what I was going to do,

I didn't know what I could be.

And I just didn't have a team behind me that I knew

could inspire me to do those kinds of things,

now I have that team, and I love you guys so much, sorry.

Please don't post this, nobody will ever,

do not ever show anyone that I cry or have emotion.

Don't post this.

The best part of this story that John left out

is that when we went backstage and when I was in this

crying hissy fit, during his warm-ups,

I was sobbing and I was sobbing so so hard

and there was a knock on the door and you hear, hello!

And so I went and I hid behind the door like an idiot

and Oprah walks in and she walks in with all her glory

and then is trying to push back the door, correct?

Am I correct in saying this?

And she notices something behind it and then she goes,

goodbye, 'cause I was sobbing, and I still to this day

have no idea what Oprah thinks happened in that room

or is wondering why I was crying, or has any clue about it.

But that was a big turning point for me,

that's when I realized I could be in a room of people

and just be inspired and I don't think you should ever feel

quite comfortable in a room like this.

I think it's always good to look up to people

and to see the things they're doing and to want to be

your better self and I promised I wouldn't give a speech

'cause Viola's coming soon and I know that Viola

is just gonna give the most incredible speech on the planet

but I will just, I will end with just talking about,

I joke about it a lot but I truly have

the most incredible husband on the planet.

[audience applauding]

You are our everything, you completely made me a woman,

we have grown together, our family has grown together,

our careers have grown together, this is so sappy,

I'm sorry, I hate it, I didn't cry during our wedding.

Ugh.

I hate you, John, I really do.

But you work so tirelessly and so hard

for the things you believe in and you don't complain,

you never say anything, you never, you do it

for not the glory, not the fame, not for anything,

you do it because you believe in it

and because you love it and because you wanna make us proud

and we're so proud of you every single day, our family.

And I thank you for both of our babies,

they make me so happy, to wake up to them every single

morning and you were there, you were there every

single night when I was nursing, when I was doing anything,

you were just so strong and so good through,

actually Glamour was the first place to actually

ever talk about the depressing story of depression for me

and you guys said it so eloquently and with so much

knowledge and compassion and love

and you just did it in a way where I didn't know

who else I could talk to and you guys did it so beautifully

and to this day, I still get more comments on it

than anything else.

People come up to me and they talk about that story

and I credit that to you guys, for making it so beautiful

and so known and so mainstream, thank you so much

for getting that reach out to everybody, but John,

you were there for every bit of it

and you helped me through everything and I just can't

believe the life we have created together

and I'm so so happy and I'm so honored to be able

to have this platform to talk to all of you

and to be able to share any kind of message,

whether it's chicken pot pies or getting blocked by Donald.

So thank you guys so much, thank you,

I really appreciate this.

[cheering]