Chrissy Teigen has been in the public eye for a while now. As a former model married to John Legend, she’s remained in public consciousness by writing a recipe book, doing some acting her and there as well as being  a mother of two and recently as a contestant on the popular show Lip Sync Battle.

With her darker features, her looks have been attributes that make many of her fans wonder about her race and background; and whether she has some Asian blood. Chrissy Teigen is often attributed to be Latina, so let’s dig deeper.

Chrissy Teigen’s parents

To figure out the “mystery” of Chrissy Teigen’s ethnicity, let’s take a look at her parents starting with her dad.

Chrissy’s dad is Ron Teigen Sr. and he comes from a long descent of Norwegians and Germans. His father before him was Henry Elmer Teigen, who was born in North Dakota, as a son of Hans Iversen Teigen and Ida Helmin Dahl. Also, Hans was the son of Iver Hansen Kirketeigen/Teigen and Kari Olsdatter Stigen, two Norwegians born in Oppland.  On the opposite side, her paternal grandma is Ruth H. Schafer. Ruth is the daughter of Richard John Schafer and Minnie Heller. Richard was born as an American in Minnesota and has strong German descent. Minnie was the daughter of John Albert Heller and Rosella Frantz, both Germans.

Not a surprise there, so let’s move on to Teigen’s mother Vilailuck Teigen. According to The Daily Mail, Vilailuck is more commonly referred to her nickname “Pepper” and was born in Thailand. She is also an American citizen making her Asian-American.

Another interesting item to note is that Teigen’s mother’s skin is rather dark, which some may mistake her for being half-African American, but she isn’t. She’s a naturalized American, as Vilailuck earned her citizenship back in 2018.

Pepper and Ron met in Thailand and raised Chrissy in the United States. This intricate net of roots points out that Chrissy comes from strong Norwegian and German descent on her father’s side, and Thai descent on her mother’s side.

Chrissy, Her Mom and Air Pods “Controversy”

A recent event brought both Chrissy and her mother into the limelight when the younger Teigen joked on Twitter about her mother’s often misplacing some ear buds:

“my mom treats her air pods like they’re disposable. buys a few a month. she says they would be easier to not lose if they had….a cord”.

This caught the public eye because Air Pods costs $159 and the tweet that was intended to be funny was criticized for being “tone deaf” in that for the vast majority of the world, most cannot afford to buy multiple pairs of Apple’s Air Pods, much less one pair. You can read more about the controversy at Insider.

We’re not here for the tweet, but the controversy allowed us to see more photos of Pepper Thai. This raised questions with those that may have never thought of Teigen’s background as her mom is visibly Asian. 

Chrissy Embraces All Sides

As we know, the Teigens are a lovely family consisting of multiple cultures including Teigen’s beautiful birail children she’s had with Legend. Chrissy also loves her parents deeply. She and her family lives with her mom in Beverly Hills.

Pepper has had a huge influence on her, and that relationship has become a part of her website, where you can find Thai recipes she loves. She also has a strong relationship with her dad, who even has a tattoo of her face in his left arm. Now, with the news of her parent’s divorce, we can get that she still loves them and that she’ll want to enjoy both Christmases.