The “mom jeans” moment? I was globally beaten down for being a size 4!
I felt good up there, I felt confident, and then it ruined the stage for me, and the stage was my home. It broke my home. I’d already had broken moments within a home where I had to walk out of a marriage, but my stage has been like my home since I was like a child. That’s where I could be honestly alone with myself.
I’m so happy that times are changing now and more women are accepted for who they are. People are flaunting themselves at every size, because that’s how it absolutely should be.
I think it’s important for people to know that what I did, giving up alcohol, was seriously the easy part for me.
The hard part was breaking down the reasons why. The reasons why alcohol was my crutch. You know because people are like, “Are you an alcoholic?” It’s like, No. I had a drinking problem. I don’t identify with that. I needed to slow down and I needed to, like, feel things again because there were so many moments that were passing me by. That I wasn’t, like, grasping and enjoying. When your kids are growing up, you only have it for that amount of time, and I just saw my whole life flash before my eyes.
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey in 2003.
Theo Wargo/WireImageWhen I went through the divorce [from Nick], I divorced the world—that’s how it felt to me.
As if I let people down. People looked to us as the trophy couple and I was the trophy wife, even though I didn’t know how to use the Swiffer. I tried; like, I mean I was not Betty Crocker and we all know that, but I tried.
With Nick, I tried to handle everything with as much care as possible. He has a family, he’s married. I never want his kids to think something that, you know, there were parts…there are parts of people that’s their story to tell. It’s really the marriage through my lens. People don’t want me lying, they want the truth from me.
I think people respect that I created a huge business.
And that I pioneered a way for all women of all sizes to feel beautiful and also feel like they have style. I am size inclusive. You have to look to people for inspiration instead of trying to criticize them because you’re insecure. You really have to understand how to be able to walk into a room and there be no judgment and you accept them for who they are.
