Jessica Simpson Gets Candid About Alcohol Addiction 'Spiral' For First Time On Air
Jan. 29 2020, Updated 1:15 p.m. ET
For the first time on air, Jessica Simpson is coming clean about her battle with alcohol addiction.
In a new interview with TODAY airing Wednesday, January 29, the singer-turned-designer, 39, admitted to NBC’s Hoda Kotb that she didn’t realize she had a drinking problem until it was so present in everything she did that she couldn’t ignore it.
“I had started a spiral and I couldn’t catch up with myself…and that was with alcohol,” she said. “I would say it openly to everyone. ‘I know. I know, I’ll stop soon. I’ll cut back.’ For me to cut back, like I’m an all or nothing girl, and so I didn’t know it was a problem until it was.”
Simpson has been sober since November 2017, as has her husband, Eric Johnson. In her new memoir, "Open Book," Simpson wrote that Johnson — with whom she shares daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 6, and baby girl Birdie, 10 months — “gave up drinking the second I did,” out of solidarity, and he’s never looked back.
Speaking of the dark times she went through before committing to her sobriety, Simpson told Kotb, 55, “I completely didn’t recognize myself…I always had a glitter cup. It was always filled to the rim with alcohol. I just realized that I had to surrender. It was time. I had to give it up and I was ready. 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.”
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Also in her memoir, Simpson admitted she was once sexually abused by a family friend when she was just a child. She said that when she finally told her parents, her father was and speechless, while her mother became enraged and claimed she knew something seemed wrong. They never returned to the family friend's home after that.
In another part of her tell-all book, Simpson explained why her marriage to "first love" Nick Lachey failed despite the fact that they were known as one of Hollywood's golden couples.
