John Legend delivered a stirring rendition of Never Break at the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday, and dedicated the song to his wife, supermodel Chrissy Teigen.

It was John’s first performance since the couple lost their third child, a son they named Jack, following pregnancy complications.

“This is for Chrissy,” John said before launching into the emotional performance at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The song’s message was clear:

We will never break
We will never break
Built on a foundation
Strong enough to stay
We will never break
As the water rises
And the mountains shake
Our love will remain

Chrissy and John have two children: daughter Luna, four, and Miles, two. They announced in August that Chrissy was pregnant again.

She battled complications with the pregnancy and spent several weeks on bed rest before she was hospitalised for excessive bleeding. In a Twitter message to her followers at the start of the month, Chrissy shared the devastating news that the baby had not survived.

“We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before,” she wrote.

“On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out. But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it,” she concluded her post.

The couple has been quiet on social media since that time.

Watch John Legend’s performance below: