When you're pregnant, your body goes through a ton of changes you might not expect. Some of those changes may last forever. Others might be solved with plastic surgery. The route a new mom takes is entirely up to her.
That said, plastic surgery can be dangerous — and that's exactly what Jessica Simpson learned. Jessica has been criticized over her weight her whole life. But this surgery wasn't done to make her look slimmer. Instead, she figured it'd help her with some loose skin left over from her first two pregnancies.
Jessica was self-conscious about the issue. "I was so ashamed of my body at this point that I wouldn't let Eric see me without a white T-shirt on," she said, per TooFab. The shirt ended up following her everywhere. "I had sex with it on and even showered with it on," she admitted. "I couldn't bear to look at myself."
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It's important to remember that while all moms feel differently about their bodies, people like Jessica are bound to be in the news over changes like this. Stretch marks and loose skin may be absolutely natural and a great reminder of what your body is capable of. But the media can be incredibly harsh.
Jessica talked about her operations in her 2020 memoir, aptly titled Open Book. She said that doctors had warned her not to get the procedure due to her liver levels. At the time, Jessica was drinking heavily, and her body wasn't healthy enough to have such a big surgery done.
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"I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills," Jessica admitted. Due to circumstance, she and Eric both got drunk, and Eric embarrassed her in front of friends when he said she "shouldn't be so selfish" to risk her life in the name of vanity. From what Jessica writes, it sounded like a low point.
However, her stomach was a problem that haunted her. "It touched on all my insecurities," she said. "I couldn't handle it." It may be easy to dismiss Jessica's thoughts, especially since she had two children at home who depended on her. But she was in a rough place — and issues that eat at your self-esteem can easily spiral into bigger problems.
She received a partial tummy tuck, but she wasn't happy with the results. Instead, just two months later, she opted to receive a full tummy tuck. She stopped drinking during that time, but she still had a bunch of complications that came up due to the bigger procedure.
"It did not go well," Jessica admitted. "I got an infection — colitis — and was vomiting so much I thought I was going to bust my sutures. My mom and Eric were so worried. They had to rush me to Cedars, and I secretly stayed there for nine days." But at least she was alive.
She was especially upset about the surgery since she knew her husband loved her for more than her body. The two were a team, but he still didn't have the power to try to talk her out of it. While Jessica is responsible for her own decisions, being self-conscious over her body ruled over all other emotions.
And even worse, she was still not completely happy with what went down. "I can tell you that plastic surgery does not cure what's inside," she wrote. "Really, it's about how you feel emotionally, and I was still just as hard on myself once those stitches were out. I still had work to do." Unfortunately, there's no surgery that can take away your self-doubt.
Instead of surgery, Jessica needed to work on loving herself. As she's now the mom of three, her body has gone through pregnancy at least three times. Pregnancy is truly a transformative experience. But it's much easier said than done. Women can come out of pregnancy feeling like completely different people.
Plus, if a woman breastfeeds, her body isn't really her own for a while. It can be exhausting to feel like yourself for a couple of months, at least. It's upsetting to realize that Jessica — and many women like her — were once in such a dark place regarding their appearance.
The good news is that Jessica is much healthier now. She stopped drinking in 2017, and in a way, her memoir has been a cathartic experience. She wasn't afraid to write about all the hard stuff she'd experienced, from addiction to emotional affairs.
In the book, she admitted that during her marriage to Nick Lachey, she had an emotional affair with actor and producer Johnny Knoxville. While both were married at the time, and nothing physical happened, she stated that she always felt like emotional affairs were worse. She said the two of them would talk for hours.
"It's funny, I know, because I had placed such an emphasis on sex by not having it before marriage," she wrote. "After I actually had sex, I understood that the emotional part was what mattered. And Johnny and I had that, which seemed far more of a betrayal to my marriage than sex."
Jessica admitted that Johnny made her feel ways that Nick didn't. "I could share the deepest authentic thoughts with him, and he didn't roll his eyes at me," she noted. "He actually liked that I was smart and embraced my vulnerabilities. He didn't make fun of me, he laughed with me."
Eventually, Jessica said that she had to delete his number — even though they occasionally emailed. Johnny split from his wife and Jessica split from Nick, but there wasn't a good time for the two of them to see if their relationship could flourish. Too much time had passed by then. Johnny has yet to publicly respond to the story.
It's so great for Jessica to open up. Right now, she has nothing to hide. But this is just a good reminder that you can never tell what others are suffering from. It's never right to criticize someone else's body, or how they "bounced back" after pregnancy. For women, it's a complex issue that can lead to risky decisions being made. Buy Open Book to learn even more about Jessica.
