John Legend Comforts Wife Chrissy Teigen After Death of Her Father: ‘We Love You So Much Papa Ron’

Chrissy Teigen is mourning the death of her father, Ron Teigen Sr., who the model said died of undisclosed causes on Tuesday (June 9). In an emotional Instagram post, Teigen wrote, “Yesterday I woke up with a daddy and went to bed without one. 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!,” she wrote.

The Star Search judge and cookbook author included a sweet clip of her dad sitting at the dinner table joking about how he’s sick of eating fish. “Salmon this, salmon that … I got so much salmon I’ll never touch another salmon for the rest of my life,” he says in the video in which people around him laugh about his complaints. In the comments, Teigen explained the clip, saying her dad was talking about raising her in the Pacific Northwest, which he loved, except for all that salmon.

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“And then my dad just like … f–king died,” Teigen wrote of . “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.” Teigen described how a couple of months ago she went away for a week and wrote a letter to Ron Sr. describing how grateful she was for him, how hard he worked for the family when she was growing up and expressing her deep love for him.

“I am forever grateful for the moment I handed him the letter, and all our years before,” she said. “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. 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.”

The note ended with what sounded like a sweet inside joke between father and daughter: “until we complain again.” Ron was married to Teigen’s mother, Vilailuck Teigen for more than 35 years before their 2019 divorce. According to E!, Ron Sr. moved to an assisted living facility near Teigen’s L.A. home several years ago, while her mother relocated to her native Thailand.

Teigen’s husband, singer John Legend, offered his condolences and shared his love for his father-in-law as well. “We love you so much Papa Ron. I’m so glad you got to spend so much time with your grandbabies,” he said of the couple’s four children: Luna (10), Miles (8), Esti (3) and Wren (2). “I loved seeing you beam with pride at the beautiful family you helped create.”

A number of the couple’s celebrity friends offered love and support as well, including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jenna Dewan, Natasha Rothwell, Stacy Keibler, DJ D-Nice, Ike Barinholtz, Kerry Washington, Summer House‘s Ciara Miller, Hilaria Baldwin and Jessy Wilson, among others.