The Evolution of Chrissy Teigen

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Description

Christine Diane Teigen. Mother, model, mayor of Twitter. In the inaugural episode of I’m Sorry, hosts Hoja Lopez, Mohanad Elshieky, and Kiki Monique explore the humble origins of the clapback queen herself: from growing up in small-town Washington, to getting discovered at a California surf shop, and eventually becoming the founding member of “Cancel Club.” In part 1 of our 2-part Chrissy Teigen deep dive, we answer: how did the empire fall… and can it be rebuilt?

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Mohanad Elshieky, Kiki Monique, Hoja Lopez

Hoja Lopez  00:15

Hello, everyone and welcome to I’M SORRY, a podcast about apologies. I’m Ohio Lopez. I’m a comedian, improviser and producer in the Chicago, Illinois area, and I’m so excited to be here today. I can’t wait to introduce you to my other co-hosts. Go ahead.

Kiki Monique 

I’m Kiki Monique, founder of the Talk Of Shame and Crazy Cat Lady.

Mohanad Elshieky

And I am Mohanad Elshieky. I’m a comedian, writer, and I also have 18 Olympic medals.

Hoja Lopez 

That’s It’s incredible, Mohanad.  I only have one and it’s being jealous of other women it from ages 15 to 22.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Oh, is it gold?

Hoja Lopez 

Oh, it was gold, honey, it was gold.

Hoja Lopez 

So what are we going to talk about on the show? What is this about? I think for me, it’s about the ecosystem of apologies and mistakes inside of like the human mind. And sorry, that sounded like a full guru line. But in my mind, I just think it’s like something that we have to do all the time. And it’s sort of like the bare end of being a human person. And so I’m really interested in doing deep dives, and figuring out if we can get into the psyche of these celebrities, or politicians, or just normal people who are doing hopefully their best, but we caught them on a terrible day. And then others maybe not so much.

Kiki Monique 

Yeah, I mean, I want us to help solve the problem, like you said, like, we’re just sort of spinning in the same cycle of I’m sorry, and what’s the next step? So like, can we be a part of like, here’s what the next step is. We can define it.

Mohanad Elshieky

Yeah. And basically, what comes after all of this, you know, like, are we are we trying to get better people? Or are we trying to get people to disappear? Which one are we in the business of or are we somewhere in the middle?

Hoja Lopez  02:12

So the ideas that we’re going to break down these apologies, figure out whether or not the consequences were right, if they did the right thing, if they did it at the right time, and then just kind of talk amongst ourselves and learn because honestly, I’m a newbie, I don’t really understand this world either. So hopefully, it’s more of an exploration, and we can learn about it together.

Hoja Lopez 

So, Mohanad, Kiki, I personally, or my relationship to apologies is that as a notorious bad child, or bad kid, I was very good at offering apologies that I did not mean. And I had to truly grow out of that. In general, I think what makes me qualified, is that I’m in the realm of apologizes too much for things that aren’t even my fault. So I would put me as a number one apologizer. What about you guys?

Kiki Monique 

I feel like I don’t think that I have been apologized to enough. And so because of that, I’ve taken the last couple of years, and sort of just like, call people out because I feel like more people owe me apologies, maybe not just me specifically, but like, maybe my community but in general, I just, I just want to hear more. I’m sorry.

Mohanad Elshieky 

I feel like I’m kind of like the in the middle between those two, because I feel like I haven’t done enough apologies ever. And the way I do it is I really try and not do anything bad. Like I’m too in my head about it to a point where it’s just too much. Like something about me, I always delete tweets, like five minutes after I tweet them, even if they have nothing in them. Like I don’t know, I don’t want to if there’s 1% chance I have to apologize for this. I don’t want it out there. And I think I’m trying to be more comfortable with just being owning up to stuff and being like, well, I’m sorry, I did this or I said that then just move on.

Hoja Lopez  04:10

I definitely agree with that. I think ultimately for me, apologies are, I guess about the person that you’re offering them to? It’s about the person on the receiving end versus the person who’s giving them. And honestly, that’s always tough. That’s always a tough thing, especially considering how hard it is to own up to your mistakes and how long it takes the human brain to not take that as like a blow to your ego. You know, I think that’s like a, like a big boat skill that not everybody has right off the bat.

Kiki Monique 

I mean, I feel like you know, obviously, if you were raised by parents who like taught you to say I’m sorry, like you always knew like when to apologize. But like lately, with these apologies that are coming around. There is clearly a format because people are quick to say that apology. wasn’t right. But we were never taught in school like, what is an appropriate apology? Like, you know, we learned a lot of things in English, like how to format a sentence how to use a verb correctly, but I don’t think I ever learned like the appropriate way to apologize.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. Because like, yeah, we, I mean, even when you’re taught how to apologize, it’s like, you just say the phrase, I am sorry, but now it’s more like, and for what, do you know what you did wrong? And what are you gonna do about it? And there’s a whole list that you have like to kind of like, check. And I feel like a lot of people are like, what, I just apologize. I don’t know what else you want from me. And I think I mean, this is a conversation like worth having, like, what do we expect from an apology? What makes a good apology? Is there like any, anything that someone can do that is considered redeemable basically, like, you cannot apologize for that. And you had to do an action or you have to face like, consequences instead. And you can just like put something in the Notes app and be like, Okay, this is done. I’m good now.

Hoja Lopez  06:05

Yeah, that’s interesting. It reminds me of like, you know, pennants, and when people go to prison, and they pay kind of, quote, their debt to society, there’s just a really kind of clear-cut idea of like, this is what you did. And these are the consequences. But what happens when you take away that sort of like justice system, from a government perspective, and you input in its place, a system of people that are trying their best to hold each other accountable? And the fact that sometimes it works, but sometimes it really does it. Like I keep telling myself, like, I think we’re like in the Mesozoic era of treating people kindly, of treating women and children and people of color in a way that like makes sense for our more egalitarian society. And this is sort of like the growing pains of that. And I think having the conversation is so important, because we’re in the chaos. Like I feel like I don’t even know what I’m going to say on this podcast. I’m like, half afraid that I’m going to say something messed up and people are gonna hate me for it. And I’m gonna have to apologize. We all agree we’re probably gonna have to apologize for something that we say on the show.

Mohanad Elshieky 

I’m doing this in advance you know, I’m sorry for everything.

Hoja Lopez 

I’ll pre-emptively cancel myself at this moment. For anything that I do.

Mohanad Elshieky

Whatever it is that I say even if it’s good, I’m sorry, I did something good if that helps.

Kiki Monique 

And yeah, and because we’re in this chaos and like we’ve become like the judge jury and executioner like we’re just in this big pile right where everything filters into canceled culture It reminds me of like, you know, when you like show up to like your first day of college and you’re in a group and they say like look to your left and look to your right like one of these people will not be graduating with you that’s how I feel about canceled culture I’m like one of these people next to you will be canceled at some point like one out of every two person in the next 10 years for sure. Because everything is become canceled because there is no just like from the I’m sorry to that cancel it’s all just become one collective.

Mohanad Elshieky  08:08

Yeah, and I think it has to be said that we are not experts here. We’re literally just trying to figure out stuff and learn so yeah, please, please don’t come at us.

Kiki Monique 

Well, speak for yourself. I mean, speak for yourself. I feel very expert level.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Well, you definitely, 100% I only know how to do Olympic sports.

Hoja Lopez

So just to start us off, I want to talk today about Christine Diane Teigen. And so I don’t know if you know, this person, this woman, the celebrity, this beautiful model. So I think the reason I want to talk about her in particular because I feel like she’s kind of a microcosm of the entire sort of like, idea of apologies. I want to talk about what she represents. And honestly, I kind of just want to know more about her. I was a big Chrissy Teigen fan, and I just thought she had something that I never had, which is like a comeback queen. A killer comeback is always something that like I have truly appreciated my best friends and the people that I love the most have a very sharp tongue. And I’m more of like a carefully worded 500-word essay sent to you a week later. So that’s kind of my vibe. So what do you guys think about Chrissy and just kind of starting off that way? Well, I

Kiki Monique 

think I mean, first of all, you know, we just we talked about, you know, elementary school. If you want to learn how to do an apology, I feel like Chrissy Teigen will become the textbook the face of the textbook for these future apologies because she really is when you think of like the I’m Sorrys. I think she’s comes first to mind for everyone. I mean, I didn’t know too much about her like at the start, but through her tweets, I got to know her pretty well. And I didn’t I think it was after she was sort of doing the problematic stuff. But you know.

Mohanad Elshieky  10:05

Yeah. And I think she’s someone who basically apologize in every format. like she did medium articles, she did tweets, she did note abs. And I mean, we’ll talk about which one of these worked and which did not as we go on, but like you said, like textbook of apologies is just so many examples, and consequences comebacks, and she also demanded apologies from other people. And we’re going to talk about how good these apologies were.

Hoja Lopez

I would love to kind of just start off with who she is as a person. And I was trying to kind of get some empathy going, because kind of here in 2021, I just didn’t have a lot of that in me for Christie. And I was like, Well, she’s a full human person. So I want to kind of delve in and look at her background and just kind of see where she comes from. So just to kind of start off this is going to be a half biography half hot takes on why I think Chrissy Teigen is how she is, our brain formed into this thing that she created. So to start off, Christine Diane Teigen is an American, you guys born in Delta, Utah, good for her. I was not born in America, so good for you, Chrissy Teigen. You were already here I had to get here, was complicated. But she kind of spent most of her childhood moving around the country with her father who was an electrician. So right off the bat, I’m like, okay, she’s kind of a little bit salt to the earth, even though she’s like mega hot, you know, apparently, and this is one of my favorite because Teigen facts is that her parents operated a tavern called Porky’s. And I can already tell you right now that I love it. It’s probably not open anymore. But I want to go in the past a Porky’s

Kiki Monique

Wait, was it named after the movie? Or was the movie named after that place? Or neither?

Hoja Lopez  12:02

I think they’re completely separate entities. But I’m very glad that you brought that up. Because either way, I’m a fan. Either way.

Mohanad Elshieky 

I just loved the name.

Kiki Monique

I think you left out the most important part, Hoja. She was born November 30, which means she’s a Sagittarius and as a Sagittarius If I had known this. This would have explained so much. I actually would have like, stopped the deep dives there. Because we’re crazy. But like in the best possible way. Like we’re loud. We can be tactless. But people love us. And so they accepted as part of our whole package. Until they don’t.

Mohanad Elshieky 

The whole episodes just being like, oh, she is that and I get what else do you want to know honestly, like, go read about it. It is what it is. I mean, you have to forgive her. She has no control over this.

Kiki Monique 

I’m kind of like I’m already on that train. I’m like, oh, I kind of forgive her already. But let’s keep going because yeah, it might not.

Hoja Lopez 

So I’m a Virgo. And honestly, you guys, I have no idea what that means. I don’t know. People tell me things. And I’m like, okay, that sounds right. That doesn’t sound right. I’m thoroughly confused about astrology.

Hoja Lopez

Okay, so Chrissy. So, basically her dad, his name is Ron Teigen Sr, which again, a father’s named Ron is what again, just feeds into this Porky’s thing even further. So, according to this Vanity Fair article that I poured over so Christy’s mom and dad, they met in Thailand and then after meeting them, Ron, her dad brought Chrissy’s mother and then an older half-sister back to his trailer in the United States. So he literally just grew up in a trailer and then Chrissy was born in delta, Utah, and then after that, they relocated to Snohomish, Washington, and that’s when they opened the Porky’s tavern. So, you know, as she’s growing up, I’m getting this image of her just kind of like, not really like maybe necessarily understanding her place in the US and moving around and having like, a really varied background. I mean, Mohaned, I think you and also Kiki have like, very distinct backgrounds. What was it, like, kind of growing up for you guys, sort of different or kind of othered? I guess?

Mohanad Elshieky  14:46

Well, I mean, I didn’t grow up here. I came here as like, you know, like, I was 23 when I first came to the US, but I mean, I understand just being like, in a place where, you know, people don’t talk like you. They don’t like, you know, they don’t look like you. And you also have to like figure out, like, where you belonged in all of this. And I guess for her, like, it was, you know, like being a woman of color, obviously, but also like traveling around. And, you know, like she has a mom from Thailand, her dad is from Norway. So I feel like even like her family is trying to figure out where they belong in this like whole like, you know, like country. So it’s hard, but like, even your family is just like, yeah, we also have no idea what we’re doing.

Kiki Monique 

I mean, I felt like I have the opposite, because my family was in the same place their entire lives. And when they were growing up, the area they were in was predominantly Black. But then, as the suburbs came, it became a predominantly White neighborhood, but my family’s still stayed. So when I came along, I was like, the only Black kid in my class, like for most of my life, you know, from elementary through high school. So the only Black people I knew were really my family. So I definitely had a different time like fitting in was different for me, you know, my parents, you know, accepted all my friends and probably got used to like me even like, you know, liking white boys and all of those things.

Hoja Lopez  16:12

Good for you, Kiki. Good for you admitting that on air. Wow, girl brave. I won’t call you brave for too many things. But that one.

Mohanad Elshieky

You did it. You won. I’ll give you one of my medals.

Hoja Lopez 

Apologize right now. You know, they’re coming for you. Yeah, to your point, I moved around a lot to when I first arrived. I think that’s definitely something like immigrant or like kind of, again, some of your parents do is like you’re trying to find where the best job is where the best opportunity is. So it’s interesting to me that later on again, they move to California and this is kind of where Chrissy gets sort of like her big break. So she’s working a retail at a surf shop which aka coolest bitch alive already. If you worked in coffee, or at a surf or skate shop, you have my full admiration.

Kiki Monique

I was a barista.

Hoja Lopez

Kiki, I’ve never been a barista, but I’ve always admired.

Mohanad Elshieky

A lot of cafes if that helps makes me cool.

Hoja Lopez 

But I believe you, I believe in you. For sure. And then okay, so she’s working at this retail surf shop on Main Street in Huntington Beach, which I say that as if I’ve ever been there never been. I’m assuming it’s a very picturesque Baywatch style, high waisted bikinis place at this point. Full America, you know what I mean? Just deep, deep America. And she basically gets discovered at age 18 when a photographer comes into the shop, and asked to photograph her. But just as a heads up, I dreamt of being discovered as a teenager. Is this something that all people think?

Kiki Monique  18:02

Yeah, walking through the mall I thought like, of course, like, John Barbers is on where are you? Like, come find me.

Hoja Lopez 

I remember pouting while I was in the mall. And like, this is some teenage shit where you’re just like, you’re like people are watching me right now. This whole situation is about me.

Kiki Monique 

You definitely thought you were the main character.

Mohanad Elshieky

Or being in the entertainment industry. I feel like that’s me now. Like I’m doing a show for two people in the bar. And like one of them works for SNL. You’re here. I see you.

Hoja Lopez

Oh, my God. Okay. So again, with the whole getting discovered thing. So this is a really cute story and something that my dad would definitely not do, which is she gets this photography gig and the dad’s like, I’m coming with you. I got to make sure this is legit. My father been like good luck. I hope it works out for you. I hope you have great photo shoot. Oh Ha get it. very supportive, but not so protective. But I’m so glad that Ron, that Ron had Chrissy’s back, you know. So this is something that I was reading just in terms of like herself at that time, which was really interesting. She gave an interview in 2014 for The Daily Beast. And this is kind of how she described herself. She said, I just never thought I could do it myself really. I still have trouble calling myself a model. I just never thought I was tall enough or skinny enough. And it was the time of very thin wavy runway models and I knew I wasn’t that.

Hoja Lopez

So she’s landing this be a bomb campaign. She’s like, kind of like coming up a little bit. And this whole time she’s just sort of like, insecure as hell. Dealing with a ton of issues when it comes to like doing daily weigh ins for her career. She’s explaining also in glamour UK that just kind of the whole ecosystem of modeling agencies is you’re getting measured constantly. And so she’s doing it herself. And she’s having direct bookings with casting agents. And she said, quote, that she had been thrown off a job three times for her size. So by the time that she’s like 22, and I’m guessing this industry is just still a shit show but at least we’re talking about it slightly differently. Like this is a time when we weren’t even discussing that at all. So it was just really interesting to me to think about what it’s like to actually be discovered, and then basically just kind of get dragged for the next couple of years about not being thin enough. So I think it’s something that probably is still affecting her and I mean, it affects us all.

Kiki Monique  20:41

For sure, I mean, I can remember every single time anyone has called me fat, or you know, said something like it to this day. I think about it. I’m like, if I run into that person, am I gonna say something? You know, like, I definitely you hold it.

Hoja Lopez 

Yeah, it definitely still remains like the number one insult to call women to really like, bring a bitch down. I’ll tell you the lesbians have been talking about it for forever. You guys. We’ve been talking about how great it is to be fat. But it’s taking people some time to catch up honey.

Kiki Monique 

Yes. I mean, yes, LGBTQ is usually always ahead of everyone else. So you know, I always follow the lead.

Hoja Lopez 

So yeah, so to kind of bring back to Chrissy so she then gets a job as a Deal or No Deal briefcase girl as a substitute not because she’s first draft. She doesn’t get picked first. They’re like, Okay, we got the second supermodel in the wings bring her up. And what I just thought of how terrifying Deal or No Deal is and how they have women models just open up briefcases with amounts of money. And we’re all just like, well, she’s hotter than this one. And I guess she’s sort of like hotter than the other one. And like, what was your interpretation of Deal or No Deal because, like looking back at it, I’m like, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of in my life.

Mohanad Elshieky  22:03

It is truly though the most American thing you can see on TV it just everything that is wrong with this country, just like in one place. Like is like how they treat like how this country treats women plus a lot of capitalism happening people like literally have to, like, you know, like, oh, is there money here? No, he’s still poor. It is just like, whatever. I don’t know what the show is exactly. I assume it’s what I described. You could have had a million dollar but guess what? Still student debt. You will never pay it. I’m sure. I should host it. Now. I’m thinking about it. I think I gave a lot of incentives.

Hoja Lopez 

Oh, man. Yeah, looking back. All of these shows seem really crazy to me. And I’m sure that there’s a ton of shows right now that are gonna seem insane to me in you know, 10 years, but for now, I peacefully accept all of the sexism and homophobia that I have yet to recognize inside of myself. And others. Okay, so she’s a dealer. No Deal, briefcase girl. Another twist of fate. She’s a crossover at the same time that Meghan Markel is a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal, so both Megan Markel and Chrissy Teigen are just legging it up hanging out showing off briefcases with millions of dollars in them.

Kiki Monique

Can you imagine if she was the princess?

Hoja Lopez 

Oh my god Kiki, this timeline you have presented is blowing my mind.

Kiki Monique 

Well, I’m just saying. We know that Megan like was hooked up, you know, with Harry by like a friend. And I’m sure it’s a friend that probably Chrissy knew too. So I know. I’m just saying.

Mohanad Elshieky 

I think it will be very funny in that timeline if like Chrissy just like sub tweeting the queen or something? Like some shit. You raise this piece of shit die or something? I think that’s how people talk about her, I’m sure?

Hoja Lopez  24:01

But she is now picking on somebody her own size, which is aka the Queen of England. This sounds like a good movie that you should definitely write Kiki, trademarked […] daily.

Kiki Monique 

Yeah. And this timeline, though. I want Twitter to be referred to as shitter. That’s definitely what I call them the alternative universe.

Hoja Lopez 

Yeah, no, I believe in this idea. So yeah, so to talk about Chrissy, so she to go back kind of into the Sports Illustrated thing. So again, so many things that what I think about them, like Sports Illustrated, is a really interesting magazine, because it’s about sports. But that’s called Sports Illustrated. But there’s literally just like a beautiful supermodel on the cover of it. And it’s sort of like a playmate of the year almost like a comparison. Like you can kind of like see how those live in the same world. It’s like this big a claim and if you get the Sports Illustrated kind of Rookie of the Year or like the cover, like you’ve made it, that’s it, right? But another portion of being a sports illustrated model is that it isn’t always like that sort of like waifish model. Kind of like paradigm. It’s usually very much like, you know, like big titties and big boobies and the big butts. I said that like, there’s five years old in the room.

Kiki Monique 

Yeah, these models got to get like implants, which, you know, other models, like do not get together?

Hoja Lopez

No, no, no, no. So she basically lands this coveted spot. And her modeling career is kind of taking off. And this is in 2010. So this is kind of like, we’re right here arriving on time for when she’s kind of like joining Twitter, even though she joins a couple years before that she really is just sort of like, probably like you and I on Twitter, or Facebook in 2008, which is just like updates on how like, our head hurts or like, you know, I don’t know, we just woke up like very, like, we took status updates, like actually, literally at that point in time. We didn’t know it could be a platform to fame, you guys.

Mohanad Elshieky

Yeah, I updated my status, what I was doing at any moment, and I feel like, like it was like updating some like doctor who was reading it cuz my first Facebook post was my hand hurts. I got two likes, and I’m not sure if they support that, like, are you for that? Or you’re just being like, oh, I see it. I don’t know. Well, I’ll have to talk to these people.

Hoja Lopez  26:25

track them down. What about you Kiki? Do you remember what you were posting in 2008-2010?

Kiki Monique 

Also, you know, I was trying to get to the beginning of my Facebook feed. I was really, I was really active on Facebook more active than I thought. And I probably need to take a look at that. Because I didn’t realize how active I was. I only made it back to like 2011. So I was like, sort of like in there. And I was like kind of seeing who I was in 2011. And I was like, oh, I was like, I wasn’t great. I had like I was in like a toxic relationship. That was the year that I discovered that my love of my life. Benicio Del Toro had knocked up Kimberly Stewart. So I was very upset about that. Like, this is who I was in that time. But like kind of before that. I mean, I think I was still in a toxic. I was just in a toxic relationship pretty much from like that moment. So I didn’t like yeah, I was a different person.

Hoja Lopez 

Hey, Kiki, I’m sorry, that sucks. That you were sequestered from real life and yourself during that time.

Kiki Monique 

I was, but I did get cats and that was when I got my cats who I still have now. And they’re the only part of that toxic relationship that has carried on made me happy. So good things happen.

Hoja Lopez

I definitely have a problem with celebrities that I’m attracted to having partners and girlfriends. I want to just right off the bat agree with you. I can remember since I was a teenager looking up like Eric Van Den girlfriend, Brad Pitt girlfriend. I’m like, Who are they dating? Bo Burnham girlfriend? Who is he dating? I need to know. And then I feel worse. If they are dating somebody not a lot worse. Just a little worse.

Mohanad Elshieky  28:10

Even if you’ve never cared about them, really. It’s just the fact that they’re no not available. You’re like, I need to stop.

Hoja Lopez 

How dare you. Okay, so I want to talk about kind of this next piece, you know. So Chrissy has kind of always talked about the fact that she’s been more into food that she’s been into modeling. So after this kind of Sports Illustrated, cover comes up, she starts her blog, and it’s a food blog. And she, I mean, recipes include […], which is our favorite. This is me going deep into these recipes. And they’re good. They’re good, you guys. I’ve tried three or four Chrissy Teigen. Oh, I’ve made Chrissy Teigen recipes for the past like couple of years. Highlights are her Me So carbonara. Go ahead and go try it. You don’t need to support her financially; you can just look up the recipe and just cook it for yourself. You’re taking not giving, you know?

Hoja Lopez

So I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about her next step. So she’s kind of like started to date John legend, which is a really sort of interesting thing. Do you guys know about her relationship with John legend? I know it started in 2000 and kind of 6 with their music video that she was on. She sort of got hired to do that. But I would love kind of your interpretation of the John legend relationship.

Kiki Monique

I mean, to be honest, so this is okay. So this is kind of random. Like Chrissy sort of came on my radar. It was around 2011-2012 I think right after she had gotten engage. I had gone to this restaurant on the Bowery in New York City that had just opened. And I sat down, you know, as most New York City restaurants, it’s dark inside, there’s never enough light, we’re in the dark. And I’m with my friend. And she’s like, Chrissy Teigen sitting next to us. Now I like, knew who Chrissy Teigen was, but like, I don’t know, she didn’t like she didn’t like, I didn’t know her like that. I knew that she was with John Legend, and like that when she was a model, and that was like about it. And then I remember my friend saying, I hate her. And I was like, why? And I don’t really remember her giving me like a real answer, like, and the only context I had to go off was this my friend of like, forever, not liking this girl.

Kiki Monique  30:44

And obviously as a loyal friend, as a sagittarian loyal friend I am, I’m like, well, then I guess I have to hate her too, like, you know, she doesn’t like her. And so I knew she lived on the Bowery, like across from this restaurant. And that was really all I knew of her. But then again, like as she started, like, becoming more popular on social media. Well, then I was like, well, maybe you’re wrong about her. I don’t like I don’t like her. So I’m gonna go against you. But I don’t know, I didn’t really I knew they were a couple. But I didn’t think about them too much. Because she was really kind of independent at that point. By the time I learned about her, she was so independent of him.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Yeah, I think for me, it was more backwards because I’ve only like, knew who she was or knew of her when I started, like a Twitter account in 2015. So I only knew her Twitter self. And then I was like, Oh, she used to be a model. Oh, she also into, she’s also married to john legend. So like, I had to do like a full like, you know, just go back in history to learn who that person is. Because all I saw of her was just she was verified. And she had a lot of tweets you would like tweet about everything. And people I don’t know, when people started calling her the mayor of Twitter, which should be in the signal that this is not going to end well. I guess she was worried that eventually. I think that’s what happened. But yeah, that’s all I knew of her, even though like I knew who john legend is by like, never made the connection.

Hoja Lopez  32:08

Got it. Yeah, I definitely knew that they were kind of dating. And, by the way, guys, I purposefully stopped following celebrities, because I truly was obsessed with them up until like, a few years ago. And I was like, oh, how this is unhealthy. Like, you don’t need to know what their shoe size is. Like you don’t need to know these innocuous things about these people that don’t matter. But now I’m back, baby. And so I knew about John Legend and I both delighted and also hated his music. But this is an alternate, another alternate timeline where I love it. But for me, in particular, one of the most interesting things I found out about the relationship was that they were like playing games you guys like and I just loved to kind of hear about it, because they both sort of talked about it separately. But she mentioned that they kind of like kind of hooked up. So it was like very casual at the beginning. And then she purposely for a whole year did not have the what are we conversation, because she on purpose basically didn’t want to push him away.

Hoja Lopez 

So she’s wanting to have this conversation. This is a classic, classic scenario, you guys. She’s like, I was so jealous. I wanted to like nail this person down like I wanted him to be for me. But he was just like flighty and dating other people and like on tour. And John, on the other side of that, was saying that he was just very kind of casually dating that he slowly fallen in love with her based on the fact that she was so funny. And she just kind of kept him entertained over Twitter. And I just, I want to let you guys know, this is what women have to deal with all the goddamn time. Okay? All the goddamn time. I’m tired of the scenario. If you’ve got a person that you like, tell them to find that shit immediately. And if they’re not down, get the hell out. And honestly, I will say this scenario does not boisar my opinion on this because they did eventually end up getting married. but I mean, this is like a tale as old as time. Like they are literally just sort of like gaming each other into a marriage into a relationship. But I figured that this is kind of what happens all the time with celebrities and famous people. question to the both of you. Have you ever not had the conversation when you were supposed to have the conversation about what this is? You know?

Mohanad Elshieky  34:38

I think I’ve never really done that. I feel like I’m, I feel like I’m on the side of just being like okay, what is this, you know, at the end of like the first date. And be like, so what like what’s happening here like, and I just want to say at the end of the, that just depends sometimes it’s at the beginning. It was like before we no, no, seriously though, like, I feel like, like just early on, because I feel like I am like an anxious person. So I’m like, I just want to know what’s happening here. Just get it like over with. I don’t have to think about it when I go home.

Kiki Monique 

Yeah. And it’s not that like, I don’t have the, I just don’t have the conversation because I just I don’t think I typically have these conversations because I want us to both be pretty freebirds it’s kind of how I’ve always lived. So maybe I should have more conversation.

Hoja Lopez 

No, day by day, honey. You just like don’t even think about the next 48 hours. Just think about that moment that you’re in. Honestly, it’s an honor. Do you need to infect other people with this ability that you have? Because I’m, Mohaned, I know you were joking, but I’m more of again, gay. You know, the LGBTQ community has a real monopoly on commitment. So I need do you like me. Why do you like me? Have you ever dated a fat person before? Those are like my top three questions? Oh, right off the bat. Have you ever dated a fat person before? Oh, absolutely. I don’t want to be the first one. Are you kidding me? That’s too much pressure.

Kiki Monique  36:13

No, you’re right. I will say I like if I’m dating on apps. I’ll be like, have you ever dated a Black girl before? I do that, you’re right.

Hoja Lopez

Um, but anyways, that is what Chrissy Teigen and john legend are doing they’re orbiting each other and not telling each other what the next step is. So that to me is just sublime. So to kind of fast forward, they’re getting married, they’re sort of like, in Italy, they have this kind of like whirlwind romance at the end of it. At the same time, all this stuff is happening. Like she’s on Twitter, she’s doing all the things that we like, don’t want her to be doing. She’s like, kind of putting her insecurities out there on other people. At the same time. We’re bullying Rebecca Black, and we’re also like, Sheen is self-destructing. And like, this is the kind of era that we’re in at this point. While John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are together so again, it’s such an interesting time because we have social media, but we don’t even know that we’re in the chaos yet. We’re just like, experimenting with saying things like my hand hurts. And assuming that there’s going to be no consequences to at least now we know there’s consequences after kind of a decade.

Kiki Monique

Yeah, I don’t even know like when we like, I don’t remember the time I found out that someone said, oh, you know, the internet’s forever. Because when we started the internet, I don’t think I was warned that everything that went on the internet was forever. That was something found out later, like all these new generations realize that, but like, I didn’t realize that for maybe the first few years.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Yeah, I don’t think it’s even like the internet was I feel like that came up when like social media became a thing, like someone should have been like, social media is forever. And I feel like the because like, based on the way people like use a tweet and stuff like that, usually the tweets, the bad stuff that comes out, they’re always from this same timeline is always between 2011-2014. And I feel like as of 2014, someone was like, hey, guys, maybe let’s watch out what we’re saying here. And everyone’s becoming way more careful. Because like, I don’t think anyone has been canceled or something they’ve said in like, 2017 or like 2018, look at tweets from that time, I feel like people became like, more aware. But if you go to 2011 I think everyone was insane back then.

Kiki Monique  38:47

It was definitely like the Wild West for sure. Everything was acceptable. I mean, I like I said, I was like looking through my like, 2011, like who I was. And my friends and I, we said the R word to each other a lot, like a lot, a lot. Like, it was just okay. And I’m like, I can’t even say that word now. Like I’m so but yeah, it was just normal.

Mohanad Elshieky 

Yeah, well, I mean, good luck to anyone who want to go through my 2011 stuff. They were all written in Arabic. So I will deny it. And I’d be like wrong translation no matter what you find. So yeah, it is what it is.

Hoja Lopez 

That’s wild. I did read recently that Chrissy deleted 60,000 tweets. That’s the actual number. And I was like, that’s too many.

Mohanad Elshieky

Here’s what I’ll say about that, you know, if you go because like, you can like, subscribe to one of those like apps or something that will delete your tweets for you. So you don’t have to do it yourself. And I think the second you go to the app, and you hit like delete all of my tweets or like let’s say delete, like specific years or something and you see the number, 60,000 tweets. I feel like right there, you should be like, yeah, I have a problem. I need to stop

Kiki Monique  40:05

Well, yeah, like, Okay, if you tweeted, let’s say five times an hour for like 12 hours a day, how long does it take you to even get to I don’t have a calculator. I’m just gonna figure out how it like it takes how long it takes you to even get to 60,000

Mohanad Elshieky

Impossible. It doesn’t make any sense. Like, I feel like from 2015 up to today, I looked at it, it was like maybe like 3k.

Hoja Lopez

Maybe it’s tweets that other people had tweeted at her as well. And not just things that she’s posted. Because the main thing as she was talking about it, when all of this like kind of her in a confrontation between Trump happened, that she was so visible in the platform that people were constantly sub tweeting her and tweeting at her. So I have a feeling it’s a combination of both things that she’s tweeted. And then also things that people have tweeted at her.

Mohanad Elshieky

Yeah. But here’s the thing, sorry, not to because I am on Twitter so much. And deuce do not count. It only counts the ones because you cannot delete them. You can delete other people replies, and Twitter if you’re listening, please let me lead other people replies, I want to do that. I don’t want them under my tweets. I hate them. Anyway, she really tweeted 60,000 times unlike maybe some of these tweets, or like replies to other people. But there’s still a lot like that’s so much of you there. No one needs to get 60k of you and your opinions and your sentences out there is just insane to me. I don’t even talk 60,000 words a week, I guess.

Hoja Lopez

Yeah, that’s pretty amazing.

Kiki Monique 

Yeah, that feels like, like somebody should have had an intervention. Like when she even had to say that out loud. Like John should have been like, you know what, let’s have a talk.

Hoja Lopez 

I did some prelim numbers here while we were talking. And over the course of five years, basically, it would take something like 18 tweets an hour or something like that. So if you cross it over 10 years, it might be half of that. And let me you know what, I’m going to go back and I’m going to do it again. Just check my math on that, you guys. I went to a liberal arts school. So who knows?

Kiki Monique  42:18

But that seems if that’s numbers right. That seems completely doable.

Mohanad Elshieky 

I’ll say if you do more than like, three times a day, then that’s an issue. Like you shouldn’t tweet more than that a day, like, let alone an hour.

Hoja Lopez 

What do you guys know about because in my mind, I think of is like, okay, there’s somebody who has like a social media addiction. And what does that really look like? Because, I mean, is addiction to find sort of has this thing that you know, anything that you do excessively, that kind of like causes you harm or that, like, interferes with you living kind of like your life happily. And I wonder how much of Christy Teigen is like, I have to sound off, I have to have an opinion on this. I have to like, be a part of the […] guys tonight. And she gets so much value and so much feedback from the internet, that she feels like she has to stay active. I mean, even in the way that she talks where she’s like, I’ve missed you. I’m like, who the hell are you talking about, Chrissy Teigen?

Kiki Monique 

Yeah, I mean, the serotonin that you get, because I can feel it, right? Like, if you go viral, right, like the serotonin you get when you get a bunch of followers. And, you know, like, we were talking about her past, like, she has gotten a lot of rejection. And so like, in this world, where she’s now accepted, and not only accepted, but she’s like, Queen of, I mean, I can I could easily fall into that trap.

Mohanad Elshieky

That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, like, you hear no, so much, and to have an army of people just saying yes, to everything you put out there. It makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense that these people just like, in a way, like worship you. And it’s, it’s I mean, do you want to like give up on that and just go back to whatever, like, your kids. So I don’t know. I don’t know what her kids are like, or like her life. Maybe people don’t like, appreciate her enough, or she doesn’t feel that way. So she has to find those people like who are like exist on the internet, who will just agree with everything?

Kiki Monique  44:12

Well, John is an EGOT, you know, hold her. So it’s just like, your husband is an EGOT. And like, you have this so like, yeah, I could see there’d be like a little bit of like, I want my own thing and it feels good.

Hoja Lopez 

So yeah, and at this point, just to talk about kind of her height, so 2018 and 19′. She is like truly blowing up on Twitter. So this is kind of the moment where kind of the Trump thing happens and she’s sort of talking about the positives and the negatives of it as well. And again, her being in a combat Queen, he called John Legend boring and then called Chrissy Teigen, a filthy mouth to wife and then Teagan responded again with a tweet so sublime that to me that’s like […] at this point, which is like, lol what a pussy ass bitch to Trump. And it’s like, tagged everybody but me an honor Mr. President, John has an EGOT, they’re being profiled in Vanity Fair, like the scroll is getting attention and she’s getting like to me, Youtubers don’t make it to this level, influencers don’t make it to this level. This is like A-list celebrity, like top tier celebrity. And she’s a model, she’s like hosting like the lip-sync battle show, you know, like she’s in this realm that I don’t think honestly anybody else has actually achieved from where she’s kind of coming from, you know? Like that transition from influencer or social media celebrity to real life celebrity is still very clunky.

Hoja Lopez

And so for me, this is also the time where Teagan gets asked to host that high profile nighttime talk show. So NBC is basically like, Hey, we want you to host a late-night talk show, this is the position that ended up going to Lilly Singh. Okay, later that year. So this is like the height of her kind of popularity. And at this point, she gets offered this and she turns it down. And she says about that, it’s just too much attention and focus on me. It’s almost liked the more things that you do, the closer you are to getting canceled. She said, It’s so scary to me to have the world turn on you and hate you. And I genuinely, when I put myself in her shoes, she knows that this shit is out there, like she knows what she’s done. And like probably a lot of people who are very famous, they’re just sort of like, you know, that penny you put in malls, and it just sort of like circles and circles and circles. And until it goes to the very center. Like I feel like it’s just a matter of time before we discover this stuff. And I think she knows that at this point.

Kiki Monique  46:50

But she probably also thinks that if she can get to a high enough status, like maybe it won’t be as big of a deal. Like, you know?

Mohanad Elshieky

Yeah, and I mean, yeah, I feel like if you know, they’re like something and you know, people will look for it, and you know what positions, you can take, like what work you can take in the industry, where people will do that, I feel like if you want to host a show, people will 100% do that. Like once you’re given an opportunity. And I feel like that’s for example, like when someone like gets, you know, like gets to be on SNL, for example, they would like immediately delete everything, because they know the next step will be someone going through all of their tweets. And I feel like that’s the same with Chrissy, she knows the next step. And I feel like she has been avoiding that, you know, just like kind of like dancing around it. And I feel like it’s hard to like, get ahead of it. Because like, if you try to get ahead of it, sometimes, maybe you will actually activate something. And then it will come back and haunt you. So there’s just like such a tough decision to make.

Kiki Monique 

But most people can get ahead of it. Because most people don’t have 60,000 tweets, like I can go through my phone right now and delete everything on my social media. And it would take me maybe a couple hours, right? She probably knew like, oh, this is like I can’t I don’t know what to do.

Mohanad Elshieky  48:04

And probably can’t even remember all of these people like from 2011. And just like, literally just like tweeting at everyone.

Hoja Lopez

And once you DM somebody you don’t know where that goes, it’s like, again, the idea of to me, like reaching into somebody’s DMs to say something is crazy to me, you know, and I still think that people were still like, don’t understand, you know, like when we’re growing up and you don’t know where your body ends, because you’re like, bumping into shit or whatever, you just have it gotten used to the effect that you can have on the physical world around you. I feel like the same thing happens when you are online. Like you don’t actually know the effects and the consequences that you’re having on the things around you physically. I mean, we’ve had that conversation all of us in our homes, with our family members, with our friends of like, people feel like they control because there’s a barrier. But I think that is what social media does. It physically imposes in people’s lives, like the consequences of the effects that they hadn’t actually been able to feel up until that point.

Hoja Lopez 

It’s like painful to be ostracized, like it’s physically painful to be hated, or to be talked shit about and it is honestly like the last consequence for celebrities and politicians, because it’s so hard to reach them otherwise, it’s so hard to make them pay for the bullshit that they do. But this is something that they can’t avoid. So it’s just so effective. But yeah, so to kind of finish up here on Chrissy and to kind of like, take us into kind of where we are now. So um, you know, Chrissy is really at the height of her popularity and she’s bringing attention to a lot of like valid sort of like things like she talks about her postpartum depression she talks about, you know, being a woman in the industry, I feel like she uses her platform to talk about the things that sort of mattered to her. And I feel like at this point we’re all sort of like team Teigen and we’re all team Chrissy, you know?

Hoja Lopez  50:16

And for a reason I think that she’s sort of like reminding us that it’s fun to be on Twitter but that you also have this platform that you can provide opportunities and voices to things and that’s why I think it was almost like the highest fall from grace because she’s at this pivotal point where we’re like tender for Chrissy like I genuinely remember the post about her pregnancy complications and her miscarriage and I was just like, fuck, you know, I have never really thought about that as a person who doesn’t have kids and then kind of pivoting that into her getting so much negative feedback online. I was like fuck Chrissy you need to quit Twitter, you need to take a break, cut it you need to go. And then that’s kind of when Courtney started pops up, but then we kind of we kind of know what happens from there. Okay, so we’re going to hold off for right here. But next episode, we’re going to get into the downfall. The Queen loses her crown. Why does it happen? I can’t wait to get into this deep dive.

Kiki Monique 

Thanks so much, everyone. We will see you next week to talk more about Chrissy and her downfall.

CREDITS

I’m sorry is a Lemonada Media Original. The show is produced by Alex McOwen, supervising producer is Kryssy Pease. Our executive producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Our mix is by Kat and theme music was composed by Xander Singh. If you like this show, please rate and review. And please don’t cancel us. You can find out more about our show at @LemonadaMedia on all social platforms, or follow us on Instagram at @imsorry_podcast. We’ll be back next week and until then be nice, play fair and always say I’m sorry. Thanks for listening!

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