Chrissy Teigen is mourning the death of her father, Ron Teigen Sr., after a sudden loss she described in an emotional Instagram tribute.
The model, cookbook author, and television personality shared the news on June 10, writing that she had started the previous day with her father still alive and ended it without him. People reported that Teigen reflected on the shock of the loss, her father’s humor, and the letter she had recently given him.
“Yesterday I woke up with a daddy and went to bed without one,” Teigen wrote. She described an ordinary day of showering, cleaning up after the dogs, answering emails, laughing with friends, and getting dressed for a birthday before receiving the news.
Teigen did not share a cause of death. Just Jared reported that Ron died the day before her post.
Teigen Shared a Family Video of Ron Joking About Salmon
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Along with the written tribute, Teigen shared a video of her father sitting at a dinner table and joking about salmon. “Salmon this, salmon that… I got so much salmon I’ll never touch another salmon for the rest of my life,” Ron said in the clip, according to People.
Teigen later explained in a comment that the video showed her father talking about raising her in the Pacific Northwest. “He really loved it but boy did he hate salmon,” she wrote, according to People.
The clip matched the way Teigen described him elsewhere in the post: funny, irritated by plenty of things, and deeply loved by his family. She wrote that Ron hated nearly everything except “bass guitar, swing dancing, wood carving, animals, YouTube, or his family.”
She Had Recently Written Him a Letter
Teigen wrote that she had recently gone away for a week and used that time to write her father a letter. In it, she thanked him for how hard he worked while she was growing up and told him how much she loved him.
“I am forever grateful for the moment I handed him the letter, and all our years before,” she wrote, according to People.
Ron had been familiar to many of Teigen’s followers through her family posts over the years. People noted that he also made headlines in 2018 when he got a tattoo of Chrissy’s face on his arm for her birthday.
John Legend Remembered ‘Papa Ron’
John Legend also paid tribute in the comments of Teigen’s post. “We love you so much Papa Ron,” he wrote, according to People. “I’m so glad you got to spend so much time with your grandbabies. I loved seeing you beam with pride at the beautiful family you helped create.”
Teigen and Legend have been married since 2013 and share four children: Luna, Miles, Esti, and Wren.
Teigen closed her tribute by writing directly to her father. “God I love you so much. I will talk to you every night,” she wrote. “Thank you for being such a great dad. Until we complain again.”