Fans of Jessica Simpson probably assumed they knew her pretty well. The singer was once the subject of an MTV reality show, where she infamously asked whether her "Chicken of the Sea tuna" was chicken or tuna. The flub was memorable and sweet, much like Jessica herself. However, in her new autobiography, she has opened up about a past that's a bit darker.
Jessica writes that when she was around 6, she used to share beds with the "daughter of a family friend" while her family visited. Oftentimes, bedsharing is a natural part of sleepovers. But the girl took it too far and began touching Jessica inappropriately.
“It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable," Jessica said. The encounters made her feel wrong, but she felt like it was all her fault. The guilt she had to carry was extreme. While she wanted to tell her parents, she never felt comfortable bringing it up.
Jessica finally mustered up the courage to talk about it at the age of 12. She was in the car with her parents, Tina and Joe Simpson, and told them what had been happening at these sleepovers. But unfortunately, they didn't do much to protect her — it was almost like they were ashamed that they didn't act on their own instinct.
In the book, Jessica states that her mom angrily slapped her dad on the wrist and said, "I told you something was happening." But after that, it wasn't discussed further. "Dad kept his eye on the road and said nothing," said Jessica. "We never stayed at my parents’ friends house again but we also didn’t talk about what I had said."
To deal with the pain that she was facing, Jessica admits that she self-medicated with alcohol and stimulants. Trying to maintain a public career also led to stress. At one point, a doctor told her that she was playing with fire. “I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills,” Jessica admits.
It's a side that fans never caught onto when they watched Jessica and then-husband Nick Lachey on Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. Luckily, Jessica has made sure to stay healthy the last few years. She's been sober since November 2017 and feeling better than ever. She wrote that quitting alcohol was the easy part.
"Giving up the alcohol was easy," she wrote. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb." The hard part was sticking to therapy, which was a vital part of her treatment. "With work, I allowed myself to feel the traumas I’d been through," she said.
That doesn't mean that she didn't have a moment where she felt like she was at rock bottom. Jessica went to a Halloween party in 2017, where she overindulged and felt awful. At that moment, she knew she had to make some severe lifestyle changes, especially since she had children.
"I need to stop," she told her closest friends who knew about some of her struggles. "Something’s got to stop. And if it’s the alcohol that’s doing this, and making things worse, then I quit." Jessica stuck to that promise and took more control over the situation.
She also said that asking for help was hard, but it was just what she needed to truly improve her life. “When I finally said I needed help, it was like I was that little girl that found her calling again in life," she writes. "I found direction and that was to walk straight ahead with no fear." Her story is empowering.
Jessica admitting these struggles is proof that we don't know everyone's backstories — even if they've had a spotlight on them for years. Her desire to be honest and open about her struggles is empowering. Hopefully, she knows that by coming forward, she may help someone else who's in the same position yet feels trapped.
The fact that Jessica titled her autobiography Open Book is perfect. For the first time, she's telling her story from her perspective. It's not being edited to fit a story line, or spun a certain way by the media. If you think about it, Jessica's been quite honest and open about a lot of things recently.
For one, she's been open about her difficult pregnancies. The star has three children, with the last — her daughter Birdie — born in 2019. Prior to Birdie's delivery, Jessica suffered from ailments like bronchitis and severely swollen feet. The photos she shared were almost comical, yet they proved that women's bodies can take a beating during pregnancy.
"After a month of sciatica pain, followed by 3 weeks of Bronchitis, I figured since my feet fit in my sneaks today I needed to walk out a lot of anxiety!!" she wrote in one caption from February 2019. In another photo, she made fun of the way her feet had ballooned up.
It was for a viral trend called the 10-Year challenge. In the picture on the left, Jessica posted a photo of her wearing cutoff shorts and high heels. In the "today" photo, she shared her severely swollen foot. Throughout the years, she's proven that she's a real person who isn't afraid to poke fun at herself every once in a while.
The book sounds like a must-read. Hopefully, writing down her story helped Jessica process it a little better. Sexual abuse and sexual assault are serious issues that need to be addressed. If you're in a similar situation, know that you're not alone — and help is just around the corner. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
