Jessica Simpson says husband Eric Johnson gave up alcohol to support her sobriety: ‘I’ll do it with you, babe’
Jessica Simpson said husband Eric Johnson gave up alcohol to support her sobriety, the latest confession in her forthcoming memoir Open Book.
According to People on Saturday, the former NFL star was more than happy to quit drinking when his wife got sober in November 2017. “Eric gave up drinking the second I did,” Simpson reportedly said. “He said, ‘I’ll do it with you, babe.’ It was like no biggie and he hasn’t gone back or looked back.”
Simpson, 39, added, “It’s just the way he is. He’s a very selfless and loving person who is the most incredible father on the planet.”
The tidbit provides a new peek into Simpson’s life with Johnson and their three children, daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 6, and daughter Birdie Mae, 10 months.
The pop star reveals a lot in the February 4th book — alleging that she was sexually abused at age 6 by the daughter of a family friend, and battled an addiction to diet pills and alcohol. Some of the substance abuse occurred during her marriage to Johnson, whom she began dating in May 2010. “We connected on all levels,” Simpson said of Johnson, reported People.
Simpson described one morning in 2017 when she and Johnson were headed to Maxwell’s school for an event. “It was 7:30 in the morning and I’d already had a drink,” she wrote. Afterward, the couple went home to prepare for a Halloween party where Simpson dressed as country star Willie Nelson. However, the mom-of-three wasn’t sober enough to help dress her children.
“I was terrified of letting them see me in that shape,” she wrote. “I am ashamed to say that I don’t know who got them into their costumes that night.” To fall asleep that night, the pop star took the prescription sleeping pill Ambien. The next morning, “I slept in, afraid to see them, afraid I had failed them. I hid until they left, then drank.”
“I need to stop. Something’s got to stop. And if it’s the alcohol that’s doing this, and making things worse, then I quit,” Simpson reportedly told her close friends.
Quitting alcohol, she wrote, wasn’t hard. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb,” she wrote. While therapy was a challenge, “With work, I allowed myself to feel the traumas I’d been through.”
The book also shares painful details about Simpson’s battles with her weight — she alleges that at age 17, former Sony Entertainment head Tommy Mottola wanted to sign her as a client but said, “You gotta lose 15 pounds” adding, “That’s what it will take to be Jessica Simpson.” Then, the 5’3” singer weighed 118 pounds.
“I immediately went on an extremely strict diet, and started taking diet pills, which I would do for the next 20 years,” she wrote, adding, “I started to hear voices when I was alone at night, waiting for the sleeping pill to kick in…”Do more sit-ups, fat ass.”
Simpson married 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey at age 22 while she was still a virgin (their relationship was documented on the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica) and they divorced in 2006. Simpson has spoken fondly of her ex, calling Lachey her “first love” and attributed youth, inexperience, and Hollywood stardom to their relationship problems.
Johnson and Simpson wed in 2014 and the singer seems very happy, in part to her sobriety.
....“There’s just no better gift. There’s no better gift I can give my kids, there’s no better gift I can give my husband,” she said, according to People. “More importantly, there’s no better gift I can give myself.”
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Jessica Simpson goes public with addiction to alcohol and pills: 'I was killing myself'
Jessica Simpson says she was too young to marry Nick Lachey: 'I went straight from my father to him'
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