John Legend gave fans some insight into what went on behind the scenes when his wife Chrissy Teigen up and quit Twitter earlier this year, only to return to the social media platform a few weeks later.
The “All of You” singer, featured on a recent episode of the “People Every Day” podcast, talked candidly about the scrutiny he and his wife face as celebrities. Teigen, a supermodel and cookbook author, has helped Legend recognize that “it’s just harder for women” on social media than it is for men, he said.
“There’s a lot more scrutiny on the way they look, and people feel much more comfortable being mean to them than they do to men,” Legend explained. “Just seeing the difference between the way I get treated and the way Chrissy does.”
Quitting social media can bring relief, he said, but it’s not without consequences because “you do wanna get feedback.”
“And so much of Chrissy’s career has been built off of her interaction with people and her getting to know her audience and them getting to know her,” Legend said. “She doesn’t want to close herself off to it, but at the same time, it can be toxic sometimes.”
“Obviously,” he continued, Teigen “quit Twitter for a little while, thinking that might be the answer.”
“But she realized that she missed it too much,” he added, laughing.
Teigen declared on Twitter in March that she’d be parting ways with her millions of followers.
“For over 10 years, you guys have been my world. I honestly owe so much to this world we have created here. I truly consider so many of you my actual friends,” she wrote. “But it’s time for me to say goodbye. This no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively, and I think that’s the right time to call something. I’ve always been portrayed as the strong clap back girl but I’m just not.”
Less than a month later, Teigen was back on the platform. “turns out it feels TERRIBLE to silence yourself and also no longer enjoy belly chuckles randomly throughout the day and also lose like 2000 friends at once lol,” she wrote.