John Legend didn’t see his wife Chrissy Teigen’s postnatal depression battle coming.
The 31-year-old model has been very open about her struggle following the birth of daughter Luna in April, 2016, penning an essay for Glamour magazine about coping with the condition.
And while All of Me singer John is immensely proud of his wife’s bravery to come forward and discuss what is sometimes considered a taboo subject, he has admitted in a new interview that he wasn’t prepared for Chrissy’s health issues following the birth of their first child together.
“You don’t see it coming,” he told Britain’s The Sun newspaper. “You’re not emotionally prepared for someone that’s going through a dark time as you’re welcoming this new life.
“When you don’t understand what’s happening, it’s a bit challenging to figure it out and you don’t know if it’s something you’ve done or some other reason why she’s not feeling well.”
After Chrissy was told she had the condition, John was able to do some research and understand it more. Now he is encouraging others not to be afraid to talk about postnatal depression, and to help their partners get through it as best they can.
“Once you understand what the reasons are then it makes perfect sense and you can adjust accordingly. It’s a chemical thing that happens to a lot of people after giving birth and there are ways to treat it and deal with it,” he continued. “So many people go through this – they say one in nine but there’s probably more than that. I think it was good for her to talk about it.”
Chrissy’s Glamour magazine essay was released at the beginning of March (17), and the model was widely praised for going public with her battle. And not only did it help others, it also helped Chrissy.
“She was already doing better when she was writing the piece,” John explained. “She was coming out of it and was able to see it more clearly with some perspective and I think it was helpful for her to be on her way out of it as she was writing.”
