John Legend called in to Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and the subject turned to infidelity. Both men admitted they’d spent much of their unmarried life cheating on their partners. They boiled their motivation for cheating down to their need for attention from women. John, however, said “being faithful and being in love,” makes him much happier as well as making life much less complicated.
John Legend and Dax Shepard are not proud of everything in their past.
The R&B singer was a guest on the Parenthood star’s podcast, Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, and during their talk, the men both admitted to having cheated in former relationships.
Legend shared a similar story as to how he started running around on women. “I think what happened for me, personally, you go through a lot of your life in your teens — and I was like the ‘two years younger kid than everybody’ in high school and college, and so I just didn’t get a lot of girls when I was younger,” he explained. “When I started to get that attention, I loved it. I just ate it up.”
Legend said he compromised the infidelity in his head by not labeling the relationships. “I escaped ‘technically cheating’ by keeping my relationship ill-defined. But it was really cheating,” he told Shepard. “I definitely was dishonest and selfish and just enjoyed this new attention I was getting. It was happening before I was famous but when I was kind of on my way.”
“You just realize you’re happier being honest,” he said. “You’re happier being faithful and being in love with one person. At a certain point, I just decided that person was Chrissy (Teigen). I decided I wasn’t gonna mess with anybody else anymore.”
Legend stressed, “It’s so much easier. Your whole life is lighter. When you’re able to be honest with a person and you aren’t hiding texts …your mind is freer.”
Legend and Shepard also talked about the pressure of both being in marriages that are often labeled “relationship goals.”
As for Legend, he says the attention on his marriage to Teigen makes him less stressed. “I feel like it makes it even more less likely that I would f**k it up,” he explained. “Chrissy has however many million Twitter followers. If I were to do anything, it would be career suicide. It would be terrible. It just gives you another reason to not f**k it up.”
I appreciate that John realizes he’d just found a way to justify being a creep by saying his relationship was undefined. A lot of cheaters never admit they were in the wrong. I don’t endorse cheating in any way. It’s such a betrayal of trust and it hurts on many levels. I am, however, no saint. Or I wasn’t. Like both Dax and John, I was a crud in my unmarried life. Not to everyone, but enough that I should be ashamed of my behavior. And I am now, but at that time I didn’t care. Then I fell in love and I’ve, hand to God, never even considered the notion of cheating, just like John said. Granted, I’m not married to a supermodel nor do I have legions of fans throwing themselves at me as temptation, but other than that – samesies. I think when John said, “You’re happier being faithful and being in love with one person,” he’s talking about being in an honest relationship. Anytime you do not have to hide something, be it from a life partner or a best friend, it is freer, as John said.
As for being relationship goals, I’m not sure anyone should model their relationship after anyone else – find what’s best for you. But any form of happiness is a gift so I can see admiring a couple who seems happy together. And I loved John saying he has to stay faithful to Chrissy or it would be career suicide. That cracked me up. I’m glad those two found each other, they seem well-suited.
Photo credit: WENN/Avalon and Instagram
Yep.. Keep the relationship undefined or “ we kick it from time to time” … Those were the 20s..didn’t think it was creeping though
I feel bad about it, but this whole family irritates me to no end. I wouldn’t mind never to hear from any of them again.
Even their children?! That’s a bit harsh.
Their kids are adorable, you can see how loved they are.
I have nothing against their children, but I am pretty sure you know that they are not who I am talking about.
it’s a good thing you clicked on this story then.
(sorry for the snark, but I will never understand why folks click and comment on a story about someone they don’t like, or don’t care about (“yawn”) when it’s so easy to just keep scrolling. Clicks = interest = more stories about those people.)
I clicked exactly for that reason – I don’t care about them and therefore would like to see less of them and more of, let’s say, Angelina Jolie or Princess Leticia. There are just as many articles celebitchy can publish in a day and I would rather read about someone else and not just keep scrolling as you put it.
whatWHAT: But you are always attacking some celebs… You will never understand folks like YOU? I’m sure you are not a fan of those celebs and now you are attacking this reader because she doesn’t like your favorite celeb. Tanguerita did nothing wrong.
Well this is a bummer. I know people change and grow – to a certain extent, depends on the person and how hard they’re trying/how much they want it – but I’ve lost some respect for John Legend now. Cheating is never okay.
Hence why he said the cheating was not okay.
Yawn. Not a fan of any of them.
Such a bummer that you are forced to read posts about them!
I’m not a fan of the Daily Fail. So I don’t go there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not a fan. Still scratching my head about how Legend made The Sexiest Man Alive. As for her, she’s in huge trouble right now, and rightfully so.
Why rightfully so? What has she done? Looks to me like she is getting bullied online.
Have you read some of her tweets? ANY of her tweets? Jesus!! Apparently she’s blocked over a million people and deleted thousands and thousands of tweets … because they make her sound like a pedophile. Bullied? *snort* She says she’s scared for her family. I am scared for her kids after seeing some of those tweets. She’s a repulsive twat who talks too much. Check out some of her tweets before you get behind the bullying angle.
I’m glad John learned from his experiences. Kind of a bummer that he was ever that way, but I guess that’s the point of learning from your mistakes.
I did the same thing in my early years. I was an ugly duckling that was very sheltered, and acted out when I grew into my features and moved away from my hometown. I made morally terrible decisions. I wanted it all: the romantic relationship because I grew up on romcoms and never even had a Prom Date, but also all the new and exciting interactions that made me feel attractive and fun. That lead me to being a shitty person for a bit. But I did stop and calm down. I’ve been married for over a decade and 100% faithful, without even the thought or temptation to not be.
People change.
We’re coming up on 42 years in November. We were separated for 2 years around the 9th year of our marriage and we both cheated and made some of the most god awful choices. There was alot of anger, alot of accusations, a ton of justification for how and why things got to that point. All of which were utter bullshit but when you’re in the middle of all that hurt and anger you just let it take over.
Once we cooled off and started to talk TO instead of AT each other and started to hear what the other person was saying, we realized we loved each other and wanted to be together, but we had to really, and I mean REALLY get in there and dig for this marriage. Trust took years to build again, because once it’s gone, it’s a hard road back. If I am being completely honest, the physical intimacy was also difficult as well, understandably so. It was like learning each other’s touch all over again (if that makes sense)
One thing that had helped us is that once we made that commitment to stay together and work it out, after we came completely clean, we didn’t bring it up again. I saw a quote on Pinterest (I think?) that said to the effect “don’t look behind you, you’re not going that way” and it’s true.
(Sorry for the long post)
Congratulations, 42 years is an achievement!!
@AMA1977
Thank you!!
I find it interesting how some people here are all like “bummer, he’s a cheater”. Well… People change. People grow up. People learn. We really need to stop canceling people who made mistakes when younger (as long as it’s not crimes or abuse etc). We all did but our stuff is just not out there for others to judge.
Exactly. If we cancel or “lose respect” for everyone who ever cheated in their lives, well, good luck having anyone left.
That’s fine as long as it’s applied to women too- and not just the ones we already like.
So many younger people are finding themselves and figuring out what hey they want and aren’t good at communicating to their partners what they are really feeling and need. Cheating is such a gray area these days with Social media and DMs and all that stuff too. Not giving any cheaters a pass but lots of times one party thinks they are exclusive while the other party doesn’t and no one is actually having that talk to define things and feelings get hurt. Direct and clear communication of feelings, boundaries and the relationship could clear a lot of this up but for most of us this comes later in life.