Chrissy Teigen And John Legend Support The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund With $200,000

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend quietly made a substantial donation to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund on Saturday without any fanfare, just one day before attending the 2018 Grammys. The couple’s generous act comes as no surprise as they have been outspoken in their defense of victims of sexual abuse.

Model and Lip Sync Battle co-host Teigen made it clear on January 16 that the USA Gymnastics Team has her support when she offered to to pay McKayla Maroney’s $100,000 fine for violating a non-disclosure agreement to speak at the sentencing hearing of Larry Nassar, the former Team USA doctor who will now spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Grammy award winner John Legend stands beside his wife in supporting the gymnastics team. Back in October 2017, the singer told AOL that the conversation that was taking place about sexual assault and harassment was crucial, going on to say that men had a responsibility to do better.

“First of all, sexism is awful and affects people all the time in the workplace and school and in so many other circumstances. What we’re seeing right now with the conversation around sexual assault and harassment is crucial. This really needs to change, because it affects so many people — particularly women — and it’s perpetrated the vast majority by men. We have a responsibility to do better as men. Hopefully we can improve the way that young men are thinking and behaving in regards to that.”

Fortunately, McKayla Maroney didn’t have to pay the fine as USA Gymnastics released a statement indicating it would not hold Maroney to the non-disclosure agreement and called her statements “brave.” Teigen confirmed that she would have undoubtedly paid the fine when she and her husband donated $200,000 to the Legal Defense Fund for Time’s Up. The donation, which the couple made “on behalf of the heroic gymnasts of the USA Gymnastics Team,” is one of the largest individual contributions to the campaign against sexual abuse in the workplace.

Because online donations are limited to $50,000, Teigen and Legend donated the $200k offline as indicated on the campaign’s GoFundMe page. The page campaign for the defense fund is set to provide “subsidized legal support to women and men who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace and while in pursuit of their careers.” It has a goal of 19.5 million, most of which has been raised in a little over a month by 18,969 other donors.