John Legend says watching Chrissy Teigen deal with Twitter trolls made him realize how many more 'challenges' women face online

• John Legend revealed how Chrissy Teigen is treated differently than him on social media.
• He said, for women in the public eye, "there is a lot more scrutiny on the way they look."
• He also said as celebrities who get attacked on the internet, "we all feel the pain."

John Legend opened up about how witnessing Chrissy Teigen deal with Twitter trolls made him more aware of how frequently women are criticized online.

On Monday's episode of People's Every Day podcast, Legend was asked about how he became a "champion of women." He acknowledged that "part of it is having strong women in my life," but also "seeing the difference between the way I get treated and the way Chrissy does."

Earlier this year, Teigen left Twitter due to online negativity. She returned in April after being off the platform for three weeks. Legend said that "being with Chrissy and seeing some of the challenges that she has been dealing with social media," he's realized that "it's been hard for women because there's a lot more scrutiny on the way they look."

"People feel much more comfortable being mean to them than they do to a man," he continued, adding that the criticism is even worse for women "when they have something to say and they challenge what people expect from them." In the past year, the "Cravings" author has had to deal with everything from body-shamers to QAnon trolls.

Legend further explained his wife's struggles with balancing her career and the toxicity of social media.

"So much of Chrissy's career has been built off of her interaction with people and her getting to know her audience and them getting to know her. And so she doesn't want to close herself off to it but at the same time, it can be toxic sometimes," he said.

He continued: "And so obviously she quit Twitter for a little while thinking that might be the answer, but she realized that she missed it too much. And so that just shows the balance we're all trying to find."

He also opened up about how celebrities, in general, have their own complicated relationship with the internet.

"We like the interaction, we like the connection with people, we like being able to say what's on our mind," he said. "But sometimes it's hard dealing with some of the negativity that people feel comfortable throwing at celebrities because they think they're an easy target, they're fine, they're famous and rich, they won't feel any pain from this, but obviously we all feel the pain."