From public scrutiny to sobriety. Jessica Simpson has been candid about her struggles with body image, surviving sexual abuse and battling alcohol addiction over the years.
“I had to strip away all the self-medicating to feel the pain and figure out what was wrong. I’m still doing the work in therapy two times a week resolving those issues,” the “With You” singer wrote in her 2020 memoir, Open Book.
In the New York Times best-seller, Simpson opened up about how her experience with childhood sexual abuse led to a reliance on Tylenol PM to help her sleep. “I took each pill like a magic potion, because it freed me,” she wrote. “I was able to sleep in my own bed, or a bed on the road, without needing Ashlee [Simpson]. I didn’t think I was dependent. In fact, those pills actually helped me feel independent.”
In addition to struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, the Dukes of Hazard actress has also endured public scrutiny of her body since the early days of her career. In her memoir, the “Take My Breath Away” singer claims her first record label told her to lose 15 pounds when she was 17 tears old and weighed 118 pounds. “I looked at my parents. They said nothing,” she wrote.
The damage done to the Texas native’s self-esteem continued into her adult life. When she was 35, Simpson scheduled a tummy tuck against her doctor’s orders to “get rid of the stretch marks and loose skin left sagging from my back-to-back-pregnancies.”
The Employee of the Month actress explained in her book that her doctor warned her she “could die” if she went ahead with the surgery but she had the procedure anyway. “It did not go well. I got an infection — colitis — and was vomiting so much I thought I was going to burst my sutures,” she wrote. “Doctors talked seriously about me needing a blood transfusion.”
Simpson made a full recovery, but the health scare taught her a valuable lesson. “I can tell you that plastic surgery does not cure what’s inside. Really, it’s about how you feel emotionally, and I was still just as hard on myself once those stitches were out,” she wrote.
The “I Wanna Love You Forever” singer is now focused on being a role model for positive body image for her daughters; she shares Maxwell and Birdie, born in 2012 and 2019, respectively, as well as her son, Ace, born in 2013, with her husband, Eric Johnson.
“She would never want her daughters to experience what she’s suffered mentally with her body,” an insider exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2021. “She’s working on repairing her mental health and [having] a healthy heart, especially now that she’s in her 40s.”
Simpson got sober in November 2017 after she missed trick-or-treating with her children because she started drinking at 7 a.m. “I was just dazed and confused and I just wanted to go to sleep. I didn’t take them trick-or-treating. I didn’t show up for my family. I took the picture and I made the world think that I showed up,” she revealed during a January 2020 appearance on Today.
The best-selling author knew that sobriety was the answer as her children continued to mature and become more aware of her behavior. “I was at that point in my where my kids were growing older and they were watching every move that I made and I just really wanted clarity,” she said on The Jess Cagle Show in August 2020.
Scroll through for a look back at Simpson’s mental health ups and downs through the years:
Simpson married Nick Lachey in October 2002, when she was 22 years old. The pair had their own MTV reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, and split in 2006. In her memoir, the “Public Affair” singer revealed that her relationship with Lachey was not all their show made it out to be. “We were young and pioneering our way through reality television, always mic'ed and always on. We worked and we were great at it but when it came time to being alone, we weren’t great at it anymore,” she wrote. “We really got crushed by the media and by ourselves,” the reality TV alum continued. “I couldn’t lie to our fans and I couldn’t give somebody hope that we were this perfect golden couple.” Sara Jaye/Shutterstock
The Love Guru actress’ mother, Tina Simpson, opened up about the impact of the media’s focus on her daughter’s body. “I have to be honest, to me, the hardest thing with Jessica has been the weight because the way people judge her, it’s unbelievable,” Tina told Us in April 20201. “Body-shaming is a terrible thing, and no girl should have to go through that — or guy. Period. No one.” In 2009, a photo of Simpson wearing “mom jeans” went viral — and so did criticism of her body. “This picture that circulated and went worldwide broke my heart. Not the picture necessarily. But the caption. Like, all the captions. It was just viral,” the “Irresistible” singer said during a January 2020 appearance on Today. Laura Cavanaugh/UPI/Shutterstock
Simpson dated John Mayer on and off from 2006 to 2007. In her memoir, she talks candidly of his tendency to break up with her via email. “Sometimes it was out of the blue, other times I knew it was coming because my light would start to dim,” she wrote. “John loved me when I was shining and he drew inspiration from that light. When he tapped me dry, he looked at me like I was withholding something from him.” In February 2010, Mayer gave explicit details of his relationship with the Blonde Ambition actress during an interview with Playboy. “That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me. Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm,” he said at the time. Simpson deleted Mayer’s contact information from her phone after the racy interview was published. “He talked about me by name in the most degrading terms,” she wrote in her book. Matt Baron/Shutterstock
The same year Mayer compared her to a flammable weapon, Simpson met her current husband. “In terms of my marriage to Eric, I have never felt more myself or more free,” she told Us in February 2020. “Eric and I have a true mind, body [and] soul connection.” The lovebirds got married in July 2014. Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
The “In This Skin” singer got sober in November 2017 after her drinking started to affect her life and her family. "I completely didn't recognize myself. I always had a glitter cup. It was always filled to the rim with alcohol," she told Today's Hoda Kotb in January 2020. Simpson also wrote of her decision to quit drinking in her memoir. “I just realized that I had to surrender. I just want to continue on the path that I’m on, and at this point in my life, now I’m strong enough to deal with anything that comes my way. Because I don’t have something to retreat to that will numb me from actually going through it,” she said. Matt Baron/Shutterstock
In her 2020 tell-all, the Price of Beauty alum recounted her experience as a childhood sexual abuse survivor. “The daughter of a family friend was abusing me when my parents brought us for overnight stays,” Simpson wrote, noting that she was abused from age 6 to age 12. “After lights out, I would feel her hands on me. It would start with tickling my back and then going into things that were extremely uncomfortable.” The former Fashion Star judge eventually told her parents about the repeated abuse. “We never stayed at my parents’ friends’ house again, but we also didn’t talk about what I had said,” she wrote. Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Simpson’s reliance on prescription drugs and alcohol worsened in the years leading up to her sobriety. “I had a prescription for a stimulant, which gave me the focus to never get messy. … Then at night, still flying from the second stimulant that I had maybe taken at 6 p.m., with tons of alcohol in my system, I would take an Ambien,” she wrote in Open Book. Cindy Barrymore/Shutterstock
The “Angels” singer is now more than four years sober. In a January 2020 appearance on Today, Simpson said that she had to get sober to become the mother her kids deserve. “I had to give [drinking] up. I’m not going to miss another day. I’m not going to miss another Halloween. I’m not going to miss another Christmas. I’m going to be present,” she pledged. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
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