Chrissy Teigen revealed in a somber announcement on Wednesday that her father, Ronald Leroy Teigen, had died at 73.
The 40-year-old model shared her heartbreaking news in an Instagram post featuring a humorous video of her late father, who died just days shy of his 74th birthday on Friday.
Her father, who went by Ron, shared her with Vilailuck ‘Pepper’ Chaiudom, but the couple divorced in 2019.
‘Yesterday I woke up with a daddy and went to bed without one,’ she began her post. ‘All the same things happened. Hurried shower. Picked up stuffing from the dog toys. Answered some emails. Avoided some. Laughed with my friends and put on a pretty dress for a friend’s birthday. Took a video. How cute is this dress!
‘And then my dad just like . . . f***ing died,’ Teigen wrote.
I thought that since we talk about it and I’ve come to terms with him always having been an “old dad” that I wouldn’t have fallen to the ground the way I did. I’ve thought about this phone call for years. I’ll be ready,’ she continued.
Chrissy Teigen revealed in a somber announcement on Wednesday that her father, Ronald Leroy Teigen had died at 73, just days before his birthday on Friday; the two are pictured together in 2015
She shared her sad news with a humorous video of Ron talking from happier times. ‘Yesterday I woke up with a daddy and went to bed without one,’ Teigen wrote, before describing a standard day. ‘All the same things happened . . . And then my dad just like . . . f***ing died’
Teigen wrote about how ‘grateful’ she was to have been able to tell her father how much he meant to her before his death.
‘A couple months ago I was able to go away for a week. I wrote my dad a letter about how grateful I was for him. About how hard he worked for us growing up and how much I love him,’ she wrote. ‘I am forever grateful for the moment I handed him the letter, and all our years before.’
After baring her grief, she took a lighter approach as she described what made her dad so special to her.
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‘If you didn’t know my dad, my dad hated nearly everything in the world that wasn’t a bass guitar, swing dancing, wood carving, animals, YouTube, or his family,’ she joked. ‘I have hundreds and hundreds of videos of him just being mad at things he isn’t even doing, watching, or eating. They make me so happy now.’
‘God I love you so much. I will talk to you every night. Thank you for being such a great dad,’ Teigen concluded on a tender note. ‘Until we complain again 🤍🤍🤍.’
She appended a comment to her post to explain her accompanying clip: ‘The video is my dad talking about raising me in the Pacific Northwest. He really loved it but boy did he hate salmon.’
In the video, Ron shared his opinion on the popular fish while reminiscing after dinner.
‘Salmon this, salmon that. I got so much salmon, I’ll never touch another salmon for the rest of my life,’ he said to laughter from those around him.
Chrissy’s husband, John Legend, added his goodbyes in a comment
Her father, who went by Ron, shared her with Vilailuck ‘Pepper’ Chaiudom, but the couple divorced in 2019; the exes are pictured together before their separation
Chrissy said she was ‘grateful’ to have written a letter months earlier telling her father that she understood ‘how hard he worked for us growing up and how much I love him. I am forever grateful for the moment I handed him the letter, and all our years before’; Ron is pictured with Chrissy and her daughter Luna
Chrissy’s husband, John Legend, added his goodbyes in a comment.
‘We love you so much Papa Ron. I’m so glad you got to spend so much time with your grandbabies. I loved seeing you beam with pride at the beautiful family you helped create 🤍🤍🤍🤍,’ he wrote.
Ron married Chrissy’s mother, Pepper, in 1983, but after he filed for divorce in 2019, it was revealed that they had been living apart for the previous two years.
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Pepper, who became a US citizen in 2018, had lived with Chrissy, Legend and their four children for years before the divorce was finalized in 2020. Chrissy later revealed that her mother had moved back to her native Thailand in 2024.
In 2019, the model and social media star recounted to Vanity Fair how her father, who worked as an electrician, had met her mother in Thailand and moved her and Chrissy’s half-sister Tina to the United States.
Chrissy was born in Delta, Utah, in 1985, and Ron and Pepper then relocated to Snohomis, Washington, where they ran a local tavern.
But Pepper and Chrissy recounted how, when the future model was 15, Pepper began spending long periods of time away from her and Ron in Thailand, where she cared for her ailing parents.
Being left with her father for long periods led to tension between Teigen and her mother, who admitted that she didn’t realize at the time that she was suffering from depression.
Ron (pictured above in his youth) had been working as an electrician when he met Chrissy’s mother in her native Thailand, before he moved her and Chrissy’s half-sister to the US. The model was born in 1985 in Delta, Utah, and the family later moved to Washington State
When Chrissy was 15, her mother effectively separated from her father and moved back to Thailand for an extended period while she cared for her ailing parents, even as she was wracked by depression. Ron, in an attempt to help his heartbroken daughter, moved the family again from Washington to Huntington Beach, California; Pepper and Ron are pictured
While her mother was still in Thailand, Chrissy’s father tried to boost her spirits by moving the family to Huntington Beach, California. It was there that she was discovered while working in a surf shop; Chrissy and Ron are pictured with her husband, John Legend (L)
That first job led to a Billbong campaign that helped Chrissy score a spot in a John Legend music video in 2007, and months later they began dating. The couple, who wed in 2013, share daughters Luna, 10; and Esti, three; and sons Miles, eight; and Wren Alexander, two
Back in the US, Ron attempted to help a struggling Chrissy find her footing by moving the family again, this time to sunny Huntington Beach in Southern California.
Ron’s instincts proved to be fortuitous, as the move to Orange County helped Chrissy get discovered by a photographer while she was working at a surf shop.
Chrissy described the humorous scene that developed after a photographer asked her to shoot some bikini photos with her.
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She recounted how Ron insisted on supervising her at the beach photoshoot, but once he was there, he ended up helping by holding up the light reflectors for the photographer.
The first semi-professional photos that her father helped with eventually led Chrissy to score her first campaign with Billabong.
After she made a solid impression as a professional model, she was cast in her future husband’s 2007 music video for his single Stereo.
Chrissy and Legend began dating just months after the video shoot, and they tied the knot in 2013.
The couple went on to share four children: daughters Luna, 10; and Esti, three; and sons Miles, eight; and Wren Alexander, two, who was born via surrogate.
In 2020, Teigen and Legend revealed that they had suffered a pregnancy loss at 20 weeks with their son Jack, though she later clarified that she had a life-saving abortion.
‘An abortion to save my life for a baby that had absolutely no chance. And to be honest, I never, ever put that together until, actually, a few months ago,’ she revealed in 2022.
