Watch John Legend Tell Stephen Colbert Why His Kids Haven’t Earned His Love Yet

2 minute read

After performing at the TIME 100 gala Tuesday night, John Legend stopped by The Late Show and made a hilarious confession—his kid hasn’t quite earned his love yet.

Don’t get him wrong, the musician, who is “a legend in his own name” according to Stephen Colbert, loves his daughter, Luna. It’s just that she hasn’t done anything to earn his love yet.

Legend knows a thing or two about love as he sings about it all the time and has whole albums full of love songs, many of which are dedicated to his wife Chrissy Teigen. However Legend says there’s a difference between how he loves his wife and how he feels about his daughter. “It’s a different kind of love. It’s very pure, it’s unconditional,” he explained, “But they haven’t earned it yet.”

Colbert asked for clarification and Legend happily obliged: “They didn’t do anything. They just exist,” he said. “You love them completely, but it’s not like built on anything other than their existence.”

Colbert and Legend also discussed Legend’s 2017 TIME 100 cover, and the story activist Harry Belafonte wrote about Legend.

“He always tells me something that Paul Robeson told him which is that it’s an artist’s duty to be gatekeepers of the truth,” Legend said.

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