Chrissy Teigen opened up about using Ozempic, the GLP-1 medication typically given to diabetes patients to help manage their weight, following the death of her third child, Jack. The cookbook author and her husband, John Legend, tragically lost baby Jack 20 weeks into her pregnancy in 2020, and shared that she was in a “deep depression of seeing this pregnant belly with no baby in it.” Chrissy then decided to go on Ozempic to lose the weight that reminded her of her pregnancy, as she told author Johann Hari on her podcast, Self-Conscious.
“With these new weight loss drugs, it feels like we’ve unleashed a genie in a bottle that’s granting everyone the exact same wish. And I’m not here to judge. I’ve done it. Most of my friends are on it,” she said. “My body was completely stuck. I really let myself indulge when I was pregnant.”
“So, when I had lost that baby at 20 weeks, I had probably gained an extra 40 pounds that I wasn’t comfortable with,” Chrissy continued, adding that she was on Ozempic for a year with “no results”. The mother of four explained that her decision stemmed from the deep grief she felt after Jack’s death.
“I was existing in a body that didn’t feel like mine, with absolutely nothing to celebrate – just the constant reminder that this body that once carried life for 20 weeks, was now just a…sad reminder,” she shared. After a year, Chrissy “was finally able to lose the weight that was so reminding me of the baby that I had lost.”
The 39-year-old got candid about her hesitation to go on Ozempic, which works to suppress appetite. “I sell cookbooks…I eat food that I want, and [by taking Ozempic] I’m not being truthful. And then also [could I] actually afford this?” she said, referring to the shortage that left many diabetics without the life-saving drug. “You really couldn’t [expletive] talk about it without looking like the biggest [expletive] on the planet.”
© Getty Images for Hearst MagazineAs for her experience with Ozempic, Chrissy told Johann that it was difficult to reconcile her love of food with her sudden lack of interest in it. “[It’s] almost torturous: not being hungry at all and consuming food…I [expletive] hate that. I love being hungry. I love craving food. I love desiring food. I get so excited to make it, to try it, to taste every part of it.”
© ABC via Getty ImagesChrissy, who welcomed kids Luna, Miles, Esti, and Wren with her EGOT winner husband, revealed the devastating news of her pregnancy loss in 2020 in a candid Instagram post. “We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before. We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough,” she shared.
© InstagramThe TV personality went on to address Jack directly, expressing her sorrow that “we couldn’t give you the home you needed to survive”. In the years since, Chrissy and John paid tribute to their late son by creating a charity initiative with Ronald McDonald House Charities to support sick children, getting matching tattoos in his honor, and dedicating multiple projects to him.
