Chrissy Teigen talks about the terror of being followed by two men in a car in a racist incident from 10 years ago

Chrissy Teigen knows firsthand what it’s like to be harassed because of her and husband John Legend’s skin colours. In a new cover story interview with Marie Claire, the model-turned-food-empire-and-social-media-icon recalled a frightening experience that she and Legend went through in 2010, saying that the incident shook her deeply and opened her eyes to what Black men go through all too regularly.“We were in a nicer neighborhood at night, driving slowly, looking for John’s godmother’s home,” recalled Teigen of a trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia to visit family. “These two guys were in a pickup truck slowly tailing us, flashing their lights and trying to speak to us. When we pulled over, they were like, ‘What are you guys looking for?’ and we gave them the address. They literally said, ‘Get your asses out of here!’ and proceeded to follow us all the way into her driveway. They got out of the car and stared at us as we knocked on the door and went inside. It was a terrible, scary experience.”[video_embed id='1984979']RELATED: Canadian teen shares his experiences with anti-Black racism[/video_embed]“That was my first taste of seeing what happens to Black men everyday,” she said. “It was horrifying and could have gone wrong so quickly. I was sobbing afterward for hours, and I noticed John wasn’t emotional about it. Seeing that he wasn’t very thrown by it was really upsetting because he obviously had experienced it before.”

 

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“With how outspoken we are and how critical we are of America, a lot of people think that that means we hate the country, when it is really just the opposite. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be doing all of this. I could easily not say something, and, mentally, life would be so much easier.” Read @chrissyteigen's fall cover story at the link in bio.

A post shared by Marie Claire (@marieclairemag) on Sep 8, 2020 at 5:17am PDT

And instead of getting better, says Teigen, the political climate that empowers such acts of hatred has only gotten worse in terms of both frequency and the level of violence we’re seeing enacted. “People are very confident in their ways of being open about their racism because they have the backing views of the president. It’s become such a hurtful, weird presidency for so many Americans, and I’m going to fight to get this person out of office because I can’t live another four years with this kind of hatred boiling through America.” Both she and Legend are looking forward to the November presidential election, in which Teigen’s mother, an immigrant from Thailand, will enthusiastically vote for the very first time as an American citizen. The couple are publicly backing Joe Biden and vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris.Beyond the election, Teigen’s focus will be on educating her children (soon to number three) about the state of racial justice in America and beyond. “Regardless of money or status, they’re always going to have their skin color,” Teigen said. “When it comes to them being treated differently because of the color of their skin, I’m going to look to John for a lot of help with that because while they are Asian and white too, their skin color is Black,” she explains. “We just try to talk to them like little adults, saying it in words they’ll understand, making it known that it’s very serious, and letting them ask as many questions as they need.”[video_embed id='2029006']BEFORE YOU GO: Professor reveals she pretended to be Black[/video_embed]