Chrissy Teigen has revealed that she is returning to her sobriety journey after starting to drink alcohol again and it made her “feel sick.”
The model took to Instagram on Tuesday to thank Karl Radke for appearing on her podcast Self Conscious about her sobriety journey, praising him for “changing[her]life and perspective” on sobriety.
“After a little over a year of sobriety, I started drinking again. I promised myself I would drink in a ‘mindful’ way,” she began in the caption.
Teigen, 40, admitted she decided to quit drinking because she and husband John Legend wanted to “have a glass of wine on date night” and “toast on my birthday.”
In hindsight, she realized that her way of thinking was dangerous because she “associated alcohol with a reward, some kind of reward in life.”
“Soon, it became the kind of drinking I was familiar with. Quiet time at home was for wine. The hours kept ticking by: 6 p.m., 5 p.m., 4 p.m. Oh my god, it’s lunch time, what should I do? When 11 a.m. hit, I thought, oh my gosh, here we go again.”
Although it wasn’t “the type of drink that made you slur your speech or make you miss steps,” Teigen began to notice the small impact it was having on her life.
“It was just so quiet and consistent. And, oh my god, I was in the worst mood. Too bad I couldn’t get the keys to go do my last minute shopping. But it wasn’t so dirty that I couldn’t stop yet.”
Teigen said she was asked to appear on Netflix’s “Star Search” the same week she spoke with Radke for the podcast. For her, this was a wake-up call to jump back on the wagon.
“[I knew]that if I was given this great opportunity to be on the show, there was no way I was going to do it drinking alcohol in my dressing room.”
The Sports Illustrated swimsuit model compared the difference between quitting alcohol the first time and this time.
“I think the biggest difference between this time and the first time was the lack of glamor. It was exciting when I first stepped in. That momentum was fun and kept me on the right path.”
But this time, Teigen worries that the people around her have lost faith in her, and that she has lost some faith in herself, too.
“Or maybe no one wants to get too excited about it. Like with your old boyfriend, you tell your friends a lot about yourself and then you get back together and no one cares anymore, because no one knows what’s going to happen next.”
That said, she proudly said, “I’m 52 days sober again and have no intention of looking back.”
“At the end of the day, I can still be funny without it. I’ll still be stupid. I’m still super nervous. Insecure as a motherfucker. And I can get through everything without it. I love you guys. Thanks for listening!! Enjoy our story, it changed my life. It changed my life. No big deal,” she concluded.
In May 2025, the mother of four weakly said she was sorry she had let down not only herself but so many people by relapsing into “this damn beast of alcohol.”
“The truth is, I don’t know what I’m doing. I 100% know I like it better when I’m sober. I 100% know I get more work done. I definitely feel better when I’m not sober,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Teigen has been open about her struggle with alcohol since 2017, revealing that alcohol abuse runs in her family.
She publicly began her sobriety journey in December 2020. The reason: “I’ve stopped talking badly about myself in public” and “I was tired of drinking all day and felt sick by 6 o’clock.”
Teigen has since given regular updates about her journey, admitting that in 2021, she had “some[wine]hiccups along the way.”
In July 2022, Teigen celebrated a full year of sobriety, saying she felt “so good.”
