Chrissy Teigen has explained why she made intimate pictures of the loss of her baby son public, saying "I knew I needed to know of this moment forever".

The TV personality and cookbook author announced she and husband John Legend had lost their third child, a boy named Jack, shortly after his birth late last month.

Teigen, 34, has revealed in a candid new blog post that Jack was delivered at 20 weeks and said she asked for photographs of the tragic ordeal "no matter how uncomfortable it was" because "I just needed them".

She wrote: "I explained to a very hesitant John that I needed them, and that I did NOT want to have to ever ask. That he just had to do it. He hated it. I could tell.

"It didn't make sense to him at the time. But I knew I needed to know of this moment forever, the same way I needed to remember us kissing at the end of the aisle…"

The model also directly addressed critics of the pictures.

She wrote: "I cannot express how little I care that you hate the photos. How little I care that it's something you wouldn't have done.