Chrissy Teigen & John Legend Donate $200K To Time’s Up For “Heroic” Gymnasts

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have stumped up nearly AUD $250,000 towards the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, marking one of the largest individual contributions to the broad-scale campaign against sexual misconduct perpetrated women in the workplace.

The campaign’s GoFundMe page lists the uber-couple’s gift as an offline donation, as donors can only pledge US $50,000 to GoFundMe campaigns at a time. The donation was accompanied by a message, saying it was “on behalf of the heroic gymnasts of the USA Gymnastics Team.”

via GoFundMe. 

Last week, former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young female gymnasts.

Over 150 women have accused Nassar of sexual assault, including 2012 gold medallist Mckayla Maroney.

In 2016, Maroney reached a settlement with USA Gymnastics for AUD $1.5M; part of that settlement included a non-disclosure cause, which barred her from speaking on Nassar’s abuse.

It was speculated that if Maroney gave a victim impact statement during the trail, she’d be in violation of her settlement, and fined AUD $120,000. When Teigen found out, she took to Twitter with an offer to pay for the fine.

Eventually, USA Gymnastics confirmed it wouldn’t be seeking to hold Maroney to the NDA, but the most recent donation suggests Teigen would have pulled through with her promise.

The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund aims to provide financial support to women taking legal action against their alleged abusers, specifically over misconduct that occurred in the workplace. Although the campaign sprung from the unearthing of the entertainment industry’s horror record, the fund aims to help American women in all industries.

At time of writing, the fund has raised nearly AUD $24M.


If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, please call theNational Child Abuse Helpline on 1800 99 11 99, the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

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