Chrissy Teigen Opens Up for the First Time About Her Postpartum Depression

Chrissy Teigen, 31, is many things: a Sports Illustrated cover girl, a new York Times best-selling cookbook author, a host of the Emmy-nominated TV series Lip Sync Battleand the soon-to-be designer of a fashion line with Revolve. But she’s best known for what her husband, John Legend, calls her: “smart mouth.” She opines on everything from politics to stretch marks, 140 characters a time on Twitter. And her commentary is often so “you took the words out of my mouth!” that all you have to do is hit RT and add the word “PREACH.” What women love about Teigen is that she is, as she admits, “an open book.” She will show off a perfect seared duck breast—and tell you she accidentally sliced off her fingertip on a mandoline. Ask her about the wildest place she’s had sex? She’ll answer. (An airplane.) She approaches any topic with that same raw, real candor. But there’s one thing she hasn’t shared yet: After giving birth to her daughter, Luna, last April, Teigen developed postpartum depression, a condition affecting one in nine women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an exclusive essay for Glamour, she talks about her experience, why she kept it private, and how she’s doing now. And she is as raw and real as ever . Her personal open letter dives into her experience with what she simply calls “postpartum,” and explains to her close family and friends why she was so unhappy during one of the most difficult times in her life. “Getting out of bed to get to set on time was painful. My lower back throbbed; my shoulders — even my wrists — hurt,” she wrote. “I didn’t have an appetite. I would go two days without a bite of food, and you know how big of a deal food is for me.“Most days were spent on the exact same spot on the couch and rarely would I muster up the energy to make it upstairs for bed,” Teigen continued. “[Husband] John [Legend] would sleep on the couch with me, sometimes four nights in a row. I started keeping robes and comfy clothes in the pantry so I wouldn’t have to go upstairs when John went to work. There was a lot of spontaneous crying.” The model also gushed about Legend, and how he helped her through the condition. “I have an incredible husband. John and I have been together for over 10 years. He has seen my successes and failures; I’ve seen his. He’s exactly as compassionate, patient, loving, and understanding as he seems,” she said. “I love John and Luna more than I can imagine loving anything, and John and I still hope to give Luna a few siblings. Postpartum hasn’t changed that.”