John Legend Dedicated His Emotional Billboard Music Awards Performance to Chrissy Teigen

On September 30, Chrissy Teigen and her husband, John Legend, revealed heartbreaking news: They lost their baby, their third child, due to pregnancy complications. In the weeks that followed, celebrities and fans alike sent messages of love and support to the couple, who understandably took a break from social media and public appearances to focus on their family. 

So it was especially emotional when Legend appeared at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards to perform his song “Never Break,” which contains lyrics like, “We got a good thing, babe. Whenever life is hard, we’ll never lose our way. ’Cause we both know who we are.”

Legend began the performance with a simple, touching dedication: “This is for Chrissy,” he said, before launching into the song. It was clearly emotional for Legend—his voice cracked slightly, and there were tears in his eyes as he sang. 

Naturally, people were teary-eyed themselves while watching:

Host Kelly Clarkson introduced the moving performance with her own tribute to Legend and Teigen. “I want to take a moment to talk about a friend who inspires me on the daily, not only as a musician and a songwriter but as a human,” Clarkson said. “John Legend is one of my favorite people on this planet, and it’s easy for us all to feel that way about him because he and Chrissy both just have this warm way of inviting us into their world…. My heart—obviously all of our hearts—go out to you both in this very difficult time, and I’m thankful you continue to share your light and your talent with all of us with a very special performance.” 

“We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before,” Teigen wrote in her Instagram post about the loss of her child. “We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough.” 

She continued, “We never decide on our babies’ names until the last possible moment after they’re born, just before we leave the hospital.  But we, for some reason, had started to call this little guy in my belly Jack.  So he will always be Jack to us.  Jack worked so hard to be a part of our little family, and he will be, forever.”

“To our Jack,” she wrote, “I’m so sorry that the first few moments of your life were met with so many complications, that we couldn’t give you the home you needed to survive. We will always love you.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour