The documentary series Finding Your Roots has provided some surprising genealogy facts about our favorite celebs over the years — like Bob Odenkirk having royal relatives — as well as some hilariously not-so-surprising revelations like Larry David and Bernie Sanders being related. Now, it’s Chrissy Teigen’s turn, and she used some throwback bikini photos to promote her episode on the 2025 TV schedule in the most Chrissy Teigen way.
Chrissy Teigen is known for sharing her views in delightfully candid ways. (That includes dubbing new Zaddys.) so it was to be expected that a look into her heritage would come with some pretty great stories from the model. She didn’t disappoint, and while she didn’t learn that she had a secret identical twin, the clips she shared on Instagram in promotion of her episode did include a great story about the beginning of her career:
The former Lip Sync Battle co-host talked about one of her first modeling opportunities, which was with Red Bull. She and other women would wear bikinis with the Red Bull logo on them and walk the beach handing out energy drinks to all the thirsty men. There was a video shoot involved, and she told Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr.:
I had asked for the day off work to do it, and they were like, ‘You need to make a choice. Do you want to do this Red Bull thing, or do you want to continue to work here?’ I was like, ‘I’m gonna do the Red Bull thing.’ So I got fired/quit my job that day, went off and did this Red Bull thing, and [a star was born].
I guess she can truly say that Red Bull gave her wings! The other slides on her Instagram post make it look like there are plenty of other great stories to come from her and Sharon Stone — whose story is also featured on the episode. Her final slide includes a message about the legacy she hopes to leave behind, as she said:
I hope that no matter what we grew up with or who we grew up around that we all have the same belief system of loving family and that family is the core of everything. And that work is work, but it doesn’t necessarily define you. What defines you is the people that you surround yourself by and the people that you’ve created.
Chrissy Teigen’s Red Bull days may be behind her, but she’s still fully capable of dropping jaws, as proven with her sheer chain mail dress last year, and as for surrounding herself with the people she created, she and husband John Legend seem to be doing a fine job of that with their four children.
Check your local listings to see more about what Chrissy Teigen uncovered about her past on the PBS doc Finding Your Roots.