Jessica Simpson has been on the pop music scene since she shot to fame with debut single "I Wanna
Love You Forever" way back in 1999. She would go on to become one of the biggest stars in the game,
but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a shady side.
Who could forget Jessica Simpson's apparent feud with Carrie Underwood? The drama between the two
was on the cover of plenty of magazines back in 2007 after they seemingly didn't see eye
to eye over Tony Romo. Underwood dated the former quarterback for a while, and they
even attended the Academy of Country Music Awards together, but things fizzled not long after that.
Simpson then went on to strike up a relationship with Romo towards the end of 2007 until 2009,
and things took a turn when Underwood claimed the
football star tried to get in contact with her. She told Allure in 2008,
"The phone will ring and it'll be him, and I'll maybe not answer."
Simpson hit back on "The Woody and Jim Show,"
"Tony and I both laughed at that. Yeah, we got a chuckle out of it. [...] If Tony
wanted to call her or be with her, he would. [...] I don't understand
why she would say that. I respect Carrie, and I would never say anything like that."
However, Simpson later denied a feud with the country star. She told The Boot in August 2008,
"I respect her and hopefully she respects me. We've just dated the same guy — that's it!"
Leading on from her drama with Carrie Underwood, Jessica Simpson raised serious eyebrows when she
was spotted out in a controversial T-shirt. Per the Los Angeles Times, in June 2008,
she was photographed at the airport wearing a red top emblazoned with the words "real girls
eat meat" across her chest. Many thought it was a dig at Underwood,
who is vegetarian, while others were just plain livid. Simpson was very
publicly criticized by PETA. At the time, the organization wrote in a blog post,
"I'm gonna go on record saying that if anyone had to wear a ridiculous shirt like this, I'm
glad it was Jessica — as people are more likely to follow the opposite of her lead. Maybe the
meat-eaters of the world will be embarrassed to be categorized in the same field as Jessica Simpson."
PETA supporter Pamela Anderson was equally livid. Speaking on an Australian radio show,
Anderson slammed Simpson for donning the garment. The former "Baywatch" star later
claimed she was only "joking" during an interview with Billy Bush for "Access Hollywood" and said
she wasn't aware that the interviewer had been specifically speaking about Simpson.
She added that she didn't apologize to Simpson,
but did send her a letter from PETA explaining why she may want to reconsider eating meat.
"I'm vegan. I'm fairly confident in that statement."
"Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica" was a huge hit when it debuted on MTV
in 2003. The reality show documented the first few years of Jessica Simpson's marriage to Nick
Lachey , casting a light on their many ups and downs. Though we're more used to seeing contrived
reality TV scenes nowadays, it always seemed like "Newlyweds" gave us a true insight into Simpson's
relationship with the former 98 Degrees singer, but it turns out that wasn't exactly the case.
One of the big bombshells Simpson dropped in her candid 2020 memoir "Open Book" was
that some scenes were faked. The star pointed to one episode in particular in
which she and Lachey went on a camping trip and claimed it was entirely set
up by producers. Another moment that wasn't exactly truthful came during a
trip to New York when Lachey surprised his then-wife with several romantic gestures,
including recreating the top tier of their wedding cake. Simpson said, in reality, neither of them
had even heard of the tradition. Speaking to BuzzFeed News' "AM to DM," Simpson admitted,
"I felt like I was being a phony, and I didn't want to continue on with that.
It wasn't real anymore. It wasn't reality. It wasn't who we were.
There was lots of eye-rolling, and that was real stuff."
Simpson and Lachey ended up calling it quits and divorced in 2006.
All the way back in the mid-2000s, tabloids were hot with reports claiming Jessica Simpson and
Lindsay Lohan, two of the biggest stars of the moment, were supposedly embroiled in a feud.
According to People, things apparently began between the two after Jessica's sister,
Ashlee Simpson, started dating Wilmer Valderrama, Lohan's ex. Rumors then
began to swirl that the "Mean Girls" star wasn't too happy and had allegedly refused
to let the sisters attend her MTV Movie Awards party in June 2005. A source told the outlet,
"Lindsay has an issue with it even though she and Wilmer haven't been together for months."
The following year, the drama reports heated up again when the rumor mill claimed Lohan sent a
round of drinks to Jessica's table while they were both in the same bar to try to make nice.
Jessica allegedly didn't say thank you to Lohan, which supposedly didn't go down too well.
Life & Style even claimed at the time that Lohan was looking to get back at
Jessica by dating Nick Lachey. However, Lohan's publicist denied the reports.
Jessica also shut down the claims after the party report in 2005, telling People,
"I guess people got tired of making up stories about me and Nick
and decided to create some other kind of drama."
It's no secret that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey didn't exactly stay on the
friendliest terms following their 2006 divorce,
and Simpson made that pretty clear almost a decade after the couple officially called it quits.
Though they've mainly only said polite things about one another in interviews,
Simpson had something a little shady to say about the "Love Is Blind" host when
asked to name her biggest mistakes with money on CNBC's "Closing Bell" in 2015. Simpson explained,
"The biggest money mistakes? I don't know. For some reason I thought of my first marriage!"
We can't really say we blame her though. The two didn't sign a prenup when they wed in 2002
and Radar Online claimed Simpson allegedly had to pay Lachey $12 million amid their split.
In "Open Book," Simpson recalled,
"They said Nick wanted a certain number, and honestly I don't remember what it was."
Simpson said she was advised to give Lachey what he asked for,
knowing that she would make it back. As Simpson quipped,
"I did. Give or take a billion."
Simpson opened up about how much she wished she'd had a prenup on "Dr. Oz" in 2020,
admitting Lachey wanted one but she was, quote, "offended" by the notion.
"We weren't the golden couple, the trophy couple that everybody thought that we were."
Unsurprisingly, a source claimed to Us Weekly in 2010 before Simpson wed
Eric Johnson that they would "definitely" have a prenup.
In "Open Book," Simpson admitted she had what she described as an "emotional affair" with her "The
Dukes of Hazzard" co-star Johnny Knoxville in 2005 while still married to Nick Lachey.
The pop star made the somewhat surprising confession in her 2020 tell-all, writing,
"I could share my deepest authentic thoughts with him,
and he didn't roll his eyes at me. He actually liked that I was smart
and embraced my vulnerabilities. He believed in me and made me feel I could do anything."
She added that she had a major connection with Knoxville, one she never felt with Lachey.
"I felt that the love wasn't enough."
Simpson also revealed that things never got physical, but admitted,
"To me, an emotional affair was worse than a physical one. It's funny [...] because I
had placed such an emphasis on sex by not having it before marriage.
After I actually had sex, I understood that the emotional part was what mattered."
Rumors popped up regarding what was or was not going on between the two at the time,
though Knoxville shut down the speculation. He told The Washington Times in 2005,
"The stuff [the tabloids] wrote about Jessica and I — it's obviously not true. [...] They
write these things and, you know, I've got a daughter and a wife, and she's got a husband,
and it affects the families involved. Luckily, my wife and I have a dialogue. We talk about it."
Knoxville was married to Melanie Lynn Clapp at the time, but they divorced in 2008.
Jessica Simpson, Hoda Kotb, Vanessa Lachey, and Nick Lachey all ended up at the center of
a very confusing story in 2020. It all started when Nick and Vanessa appeared on "Today," and
Kotb referenced something Simpson said about the Lacheys in another interview. Kotb said,
"[Simpson] kept saying, 'They sent me something beautiful when I had my children.'"
However, Vanessa cut in and said,
"I feel bad, I'm sorry. You said somebody sent her [something]?"
"It wasn't us, but thank you whoever sent it from us."
When Kotb went on "Watch What Happens Live" a few days later,
host Andy Cohen tried to figure out what had happened.
Kotb said she "thought" Simpson mentioned something about receiving a gift, explaining,
"I was like, 'Oh, so everybody's happy.' So when [Nick and Vanessa] came I was like,
'Isn't that cool everybody's friends?' And then that wasn't the way it was received."
It's unclear whether or not Simpson was throwing shade at the Lacheys,
but it's definitely possible.
Jessica Simpson hasn't exactly had the best luck online and found herself on the receiving end of
a lawsuit in 2018 when she was accused of posting a paparazzi photo of herself without permission.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Splash News and Picture Agency sued Simpson for "copyright
infringement" after alleging she didn't pay for it before sharing it to her Instagram and Twitter.
Simpson faced similar backlash in July 2015 when she was accused of editing her legs in
an Instagram photo with her friends. She doesn't appear to have responded to the
editing claims publicly, but we can't deny she looked stunning either way.
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