On Friday, Aug. 12, the 37-year-old crooner sat down with ET to promote his new movie, Southside With You, based on Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date, when he turned the spotlight on his own love life. “I fell in love with her over the phone because she is good with those 140 characters,” Legend joked, about the moment he fell head over heels for Sports Illustrated model Chrissy Teigen.
“[At the beginning of our relationship] we were texting a lot, and I started to see her sense of humor,” We would talk on the phone, and I started to fall in love with how engaging and witty and funny she is,” he said.
“And I think that’s when I really started to know that this was the kind of person I wanted to around a lot,” the “All of Me” singer added. “Once we started spending more time together between tour stops and all this other stuff, we realized we had such a connection — and then it blossomed into a marriage and a baby.
“I wasn’t nervous about it. When you feel a real connection to somebody, for me it wasn’t nerves, it was more like excitement. ‘Oh, this could be great.’ ”
As for what inspired the R&B singer to tell the Obamas’ love story, the Grammy winner, who serves as executive producer on the film, said, “The movie is such a great love story and makes you feel their romance, and it makes you believe in the power of love and of people finding the person that is really the right match for them,” Legend said. “The song [I wrote] is called ‘Start,’ and the idea behind the song is we don’t know unless we start, so we have to try it. We have to engage. I felt like that was the message Barack was trying to give to Michelle in the film.”
Meanwhile, it appears Legend is still waiting on feedback from the Obamas. “I told them about it the last time I saw them and encouraged them to see it, and we will make sure they get a copy if they haven’t seen it yet,” he said. “I think they will like it.”
Southside With You hits theaters on Aug. 26. Will you buy a ticket? Sound odd in the comment section below.
