Chrissy Teigen has lived much of her motherhood journey in public—from her candid social media posts about postpartum depression to openly sharing her family’s experience with IVF and pregnancy loss. Now, as a mom of four, she’s speaking out about a new chapter: navigating her son Miles’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and advocating for early screening.

On The Motherly Podcast, Chrissy reflected on the surprises of motherhood, the power of embracing imperfection, and how her family is adapting with resilience and humor.

Meet the expert: Chrissy Teigen is a model, bestselling cookbook author, and mom of four with husband John Legend. She’s become known not only for her wit and authenticity online, but also for her willingness to share vulnerable moments—from her struggles with postpartum depression to her family’s IVF journey and the heartbreaking loss of baby Jack. Most recently, Chrissy has taken on advocacy work around Type 1 diabetes after her son Miles’s diagnosis, partnering with Sanofi to spread awareness about early detection.

Q&A with Chrissy Teigen

Liz Tenety:  I always like to begin by asking my guests what surprised you about motherhood?

Chrissy Teigen: Probably that I would be pretty good at it. I went into motherhood pretty blind. I wasn’t really reading a lot of books or attending the classes, and I had never changed a diaper. I had never held a newborn till it was my own. I’m pretty surprised that I felt really comfortable with it from the get go.

Liz Tenety: Do you feel like you were a go with the flow kind of person before? And or has that changed through the shape of parenting?

Chrissy Teigen: While I always thought I was a natural at being a mom, I wouldn’t say I was confident until about two kids in. I had bad postpartum after Luna that showed up months and months after she was born. With Miles, I promised myself I was going to take care of my mental health better, and be more present. Of course, it’s a huge regret that maybe I was not present enough for those first few months with Luna. But I just tried to make it better and better every single time. I’ve learned as I’ve gone along.

Liz Tenety: You always knew that you wanted a big family. What do you think having a big family has taught you or how has it changed you?

Chrissy Teigen: It’s taught me that you really can love—your heart has room for so many different beings. And one of the best things it’s taught me is to really embrace imperfection. When I first became a mother, little spills on the carpet, that kind of stuff drove me insane. But I really have grown into loving living in a lived-in house and a house that feels not so perfect. You get to let your kids be kids. 

Liz Tenety: I feel like I’ve been a part of your motherhood journey because you have shared  the messiness of it all and the heartbreak that you’ve gone through. Why has it been important to you to be so unapologetically unfiltered when it comes to what we really go through as women and mothers?

Chrissy Teigen: [As a kid], I moved around a lot, and the internet was my friend. I kept in touch with my old friends, and I loved connecting with people. It just felt like such a sense of community that I never really felt I had in like real life. So when we share big moments, it doesn’t feel unnatural. Losing baby Jack—I didn’t think there would be any pushback. I just thought, ‘They followed us for this journey this long. They should know how this is ending.’ Even when I talked about IVF, I had no idea people were against it. But I didn’t want to ever let that pushback stop me, because I know for a fact that when I do go outside, I have the most incredible conversations with women about their Ivf journeys, about their experiences with loss, and that’s what keeps me going.

Liz Tenety: You have shared openly so many chapters in your family’s life, and there is a latest chapter around your son’s diabetes diagnosis. Tell us what you have learned.

Chrissy Teigen: It just kind of blew us away.  I started Googling like, what symptoms would it have? Did we miss something? There was nothing. Then we were just thrown into this whirlwind of having to learn everything all at once. You don’t get to plan for it. You are doing shots that same day.”

Liz Tenety: You said, ‘I went from a mom to a doctor.’

Chrissy Teigen: Yeah, I felt like that, absolutely. All of a sudden we’re canceling our next month of work because we need to make sure everyone in our circle knows how to make Miles feel safe and comfortable. We also had to teach Miles how to be a bit of a doctor himself. He’s just been so great about wanting to be the boss of it himself. He likes being able to enter in the carbs on his own phone. He’ll look at me and be like, ‘The insulin’s going in now. I can feel it.’ He’s such a part of it now.

Liz Tenety:  In the last year of this journey that you’ve been on with type one diabetes, you’ve become a spokesperson with Sanofi helping spread the word that you can pursue early detection. Tell me about this screening process that you’re a part of.

Chrissy Teigen: What I think is so amazing is that both me and Miles together get to be advocates for Sanofi and get to stress the importance of knowing that you can find this out early and buy yourself a little bit of time to navigate this with confidence. Even after Miles was diagnosed, not one person said, ‘Did you know that this is available, that you can get screened for this.’ So that’s why we’re really encouraging everybody that we can to advocate for themselves and their families to know that this is an option, and they can ask their doctor about it, and they can get screened for Type one.


Listen to the full episode―and hear more of Chrissy’s honesty about both the beauty and the hardship of motherhood―and join the countless women she has helped feel less alone. Tune in to The Motherly Podcast, available wherever you listen. 🎧

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