Joe Simpson Steps Out After Daughter Jessica Exposes Family Secrets In New Memoir
The former pastor was spotted in New York City without his oldest girl.
Feb. 5 2020, Updated 6:31 p.m. ET
Joe Simpson was spotted out and about in New York City on February 4, the same day his daughter, Jessica Simpson, aired some of the family’s dirty laundry in her newly published memoir, Open Book.
In the shocking tell-all tome, Jessica, 39, detailed for the first time how she was abused by another girl when she was a young girl.
Simpson, who was also in the Big Apple at the same time as her dad, explains that the abuse began when she was just a 6-year-old child and “shared a bed with the daughter of a family friend.”
“I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong,” she writes in Open Book.
At 12 years old, the future fashion designer summoned the courage to confide in her parents, Tina and Joe, while on a road trip.
“I told you something was happening,” her mother yelled as she slapped her father’s arm.
“Dad kept his eye on the road and said nothing,” Simpson writes. “We never stayed at my parents’ friend’s house again, but we also didn’t talk about what I had said.”
The traumatic experience, notes Jessica, was part of the reasons he later turned to drugs and alcohol. She’s been sober since 2017.
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Out & About
Joe looked like he was having a ball while in New York City. His daughter Jessica’s bombshell revelations about the family clearly don’t seem to be bothering him!
No More Secrets
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Joe, a former pastor, reportedly revealed his secret gay life to his family before filing for divorce from Jessica and Ashlee’s mom, Tina, in September 2012, after 35 years of marriage. Joe has publicly shut down rumors that he’s gay.
Moving On
Jessica revealed her divorce from Nick Lachey was the final push her dad needed to end his own marriage. In 2012, when Simpson was expecting her first child, Maxwell, with her current husband, Eric Johnson, Joe told her it was her courage to leave Lachey that gave him the courage to split with her mom, Tina.
Unbreakable Bond
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Ashlee Simpson once revealed how her older sister was very close to Joe growing up. “Jessica was more of a daddy’s girl and I was a mommy’s girl,” Ashlee admitted in 2018.
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Taking Sides
Her parents divorce would lead to Jessica’s estrangement from her father for five years. And she’s explained how hurt and blindsided her mom was that her dad decided to leave her. "Honestly, since the divorce, I'd chose my mother, period,” Jessica has confessed.
