Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey each established themselves in the music industry during the
90s, but it was their hit reality show Newlyweds that made them one of the "it" couples of
the 2000s.
Alas, the pop stars' relationship would not make it to the next decade.
Without their initial pursuits in the music business, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey
might never have met.
When she was a kid, Simpson auditioned for The All New Mickey Mouse Club years before
getting her record deal with Columbia in 1997.
According to the Dallas Observer, an A&R representative listened to the singer's demo tape, then approved
of her vocals in person, and took her to Sony's New York headquarters.
Tommy Mottola, then the CEO and Chairman of Sony Music Entertainment, signed Simpson after
hearing her perform live.
According to CBS News, Nick Lachey attended the School for the Creative and Performing
Arts in Cincinnati and left Miami University in Ohio to pursue a music career.
Nick, his brother Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons would eventually become one
of the biggest boy bands of the era.
According to Sacramento News & Review :
"98 Degrees was discovered backstage at a Boyz II Men concert when they sang a cappella
for a radio station."
The band signed with Motown Records in 1996.
The record deals and early opportunities were huge milestones in Simpson's and Lachey's
professional lives, but the events were also instrumental in bringing the artists together
later.
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's dreams of stardom would lead both of them to the 1998
Hollywood Christmas Parade.
When their paths crossed at the holiday event, sparks flew.
Simpson wrote in her autobiography, Open Book:
"He came over, walking in a more casual version of the onstage boy-band saunter I'd come to
see him do time and again, but still purposeful.
'Hi, I'm Nick,' he said.
Hello, my life, I thought."
The couple reunited soon after the parade at a Teen People party in Boca Raton [BOH-kah
RAH-toan], Florida.
Simpson attended the event with her mother and manager Tina Simpson, and Nick Lachey
was there with his mom, too.
As legend has it, Nick told his mother:
"Mom, your mission for tonight is to get me in good with this girl."
Jessica confided in her mom as well, saying:
"Oh, I said mom, that's the man I'm going to marry."
Simpson and Lachey's stars were on the rise as their relationship blossomed.
Simpson toured with 98 Degrees throughout the summer of 1999, and the couple appeared
on MTV's New Year's Eve party that December.
Around the time of the release of Nick and Jessica's "Where You Are" duet, Simpson was
asked constantly about her love life.
In Open Book, she remembered a Teen People interview:
"Where they asked me about being a virgin.
I said I wanted to wait until I got married."
As BuzzFeed wrote in 2021:
"The media fetishized her virginity, sexualized the hell out of her, and then slut-shamed
her any time she did anything remotely sexual."
Simpson shared in her memoir that she was surprised at all the attention surrounding
her personal life and said,
"[Interviewers] asked Nick and me about my virginity at every appearance, and my take
was that it wasn't so much about 'saving myself' but building up anticipation."
Lachey and Simpson were both so busy being pop stars that they spent much of their relationship
talking to each other on the phone.
"If anyone's sitting at home thinks it's cool and exciting to date Jessica Simpson, this
is it.
All we do is skip rocks."
Simpson wrote:
"We were both concerned about our careers, and our anxieties just seemed to feed off
each other."
She told Lachey that the two of them:
"Needed to take a break… just to see what would happen if we both focused solely on
work."
But the two stayed in contact and remained supportive.
Simpson went on tour alongside Destiny's Child, and Lachey continued his music career with
98 Degrees.
When her Irresistible album sold 120,000 copies in its first week, Simpson recalled that Lachey
sent flowers and a card.
She said he wrote:
"I'm very proud of you and with what you're doing in your life.
I'm happy I can be a part of it.
I love you."
In September 2001, Lachey was in New York City to perform a tribute to Michael Jackson
at Madison Square Garden.
In Open Book, Simpson shared that Lachey reached out to her following the 9/11 attacks and
told her:
"I only want to be with you."
In February 2002, Lachey asked Simpson to marry him while they were in Hawaii.
Simpson told People:
"I was wearing a huge sweatshirt that came down to my knees.
If I had known he was going to propose, I would have at least dressed up cute."
Simpson was all in when it came to wedding planning, but Lachey was more interested in
watching the budget.
In her memoir, Simpson talked about how Lachey wanted a prenuptial agreement, but she wasn't
interested.
She revealed:
"Part of the tabloid mythology of our marriage is that my dad played hardball and refused.
No, this was an intimate discussion between a man and his soon-to-be wife.
Which is to say that I exploded."
Even though her dad wasn't the driving force in dropping the prenup talk, Simpson did claim
her father, quote, "was awful through the whole engagement" and against the marriage.
In preparation for the big day, Simpson said she followed a dangerously strict diet that
had begun in her teen years at her record label's urging.
She wrote:
"I had upped my dosage of diet pills and was eating even less to be super-thin for the
wedding.
Speedy and hungry, I was easy to set off."
Jessica Simpson became Mrs. Lachey in Austin, Texas on October 26, 2002, with more than
300 guests present.
Simpson revealed to InStyle that she had the lyrics to the 98 Degrees ballad "My Everything"
etched into her engagement ring.
As Simpson shared in her memoir, the newly minted Lacheys became even more famous when
their reality show, Newlyweds; Nick and Jessica, debuted on MTV.
The 2000s series set the couple up for drama, and they had to deal with the duality of living
their lives while becoming entertaining caricatures of themselves.
"Is this chicken what I have or is it fish?
I know it's tuna but it says chicken."
Simpson wrote:
"When the show premiered on August 19, it was like someone slammed the accelerator on
our lives and marriage, pushing it to the highest possible speed."
Both Simpson and Lachey have acknowledged the problems that their Newlyweds personas
created.
Lachey told Rolling Stone:
"Jessica and I began playing these parts even when we were by ourselves.
It became a truly blurred line.
There was a question about what truly was our reality."
Like all reality TV, the activities captured on the show weren't always real-life.
The camping trip episode in season one was the production's idea, not the couple's.
Simpson recalled:
"As Nick did stuff like load the car or cook the burgers, I asked aloud, 'Am I supposed
to be helping?'
Not so much to fulfill my role as a new wife but to act out my role as a character."
The whole concept of the Newlyweds show was Jessica's dad, Joe Simpson's, idea.
She recounted in her book that her dad pitched the reality series in hopes of getting her
music more MTV airtime.
The cameras kept rolling for Newlyweds, but the spark between Nick Lachey and Jessica
Simpson dissipated with time.
The couple was surrounded by attention as Simpson's music excelled while Lachey's solo
ventures didn't.
Lachey told Rolling Stone:
"Jessica's label did this really smart thing and tied her next single into the show."
Lachey's label didn't seize the opportunity to do the same, and he said his record "stagnated"
as a result.
In her 2003 Rolling Stone cover story, Simpson said:
"I believe Nick and I are going to last forever.
And if we don't, it'll make a good reality show."
Simpson hinted that she and Lachey were still in love, but they didn't necessarily get along.
She noted:
"Everything I did seemed to annoy him."
The couple had arguments over money, with Lachey continually surprised at Simpson's
expensive purchases.
Some Newlyweds episodes show him questioning the money she spent on sheets, underwear,
and a $55,000 watch for his birthday.
Simpson and Lachey continued to have trouble with one another and grew more distant.
Rumors began to swirl about divorce and infidelity on both sides, particularly regarding Lachey's
night at a bachelor party and Simpson's time with her The Dukes of Hazzard co-star Johnny
Knoxville.
In her book, Simpson noted of she and Knoxville:
"[We] were both married, so this wasn't going to get physical.
But to me, an emotional affair was worse than a physical one."
Simpson continued:
"We didn't want to give anybody the satisfaction of seeing us publicly humiliated with a divorce,
so we continued to play our 'Newlyweds' roles."
Lachey had a slightly different point of view at the time, telling Rolling Stone:
"I wasn't trying to defend myself in the press.
I was trying to defend my marriage to my spouse."
The couple worked as a team once more for a trip to Iraq to entertain and spend time
with troops.
Simpson wrote that they gave marriage counseling a try after the trip, but it didn't save the
relationship.
As Simpson recalled in Open Book, she told Lachey just before Thanksgiving 2005 that
she wanted a divorce.
Lachey admitted to Rolling Stone he felt, quote, "blindsided," and even after they decided
to "sleep on it," Simpson was sure she was ready to move on.
In December 2005, People reported Simpson filed for divorce from her then-husband.
Their joint statement read:
"After three years of marriage, and careful thought and consideration, we have decided
to part ways.
This is the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration
for each other.
We hope that you respect our privacy during this difficult time."
Simpson recounted in her memoir a conversation she had with Lachey where he told her he would
go to counseling again in an effort to make their relationship work.
She replied:
"Love is not enough.
If love was enough, I would stay forever."
In 2006, fresh starts for both Simpson and Lachey were in the works.
The 98 Degrees member went solo and released "What's Left of Me," which sold more than
500,000 copies and went gold.
That same year, Total Request Live VJ Vanessa Minnillo appeared in the music video for Lachey's
post-split ballad.
While it wasn't the first time their paths crossed, it set the wheels in motion for a
relationship.
The now-couple recalled to Billboard that sparks flew when it was time to promote the
clip on TRL.
Chatting with Tamron Hall about the first time she saw the video for "What's Left of
Me," Simpson said:
"He did play it for me that night and it was like, it was heartbreaking and I didn't understand
I mean I did understand."
After the divorce, Simpson focused on her clothing and lifestyle brand, Jessica Simpson
Collection.
She also continued to pursue an acting career and got back in the dating game.
In her memoir, Simpson discussed her life as a single woman and the beginnings of her
tumultuous relationship with John Mayer, whom she, quote, "dated in secret for months."
Now that interested parties have read Jessica Simpson's memoir, it's clear she and Nick
Lachey are living separate, successful lives without the past intruding too much.
After Nick and Vanessa Lachey became husband and wife, Simpson married retired NFL tight
end Eric Johnson in 2014.
The Lacheys have three children together, and Johnson and Simpson have three kids as
well.
In addition to happy personal lives, Lachey and Simpson are doing well professionally.
Following his big win on The Masked Singer, Nick Lachey is making music and performing
again with 98 Degrees.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the boy band launched "98 Days of Summer" in June
2021, promising fans new music and live shows.
Simpson continues to tell her story.
According to Variety, Simpson's memoir inspired a scripted series in addition to an unscripted
docuseries, with two essays for Amazon Original Stories.
When Simpson released the first piece in 2021, she wrote on Instagram:
"I felt strong, resilient, and God-inspired through my pen teaching me as I was sharing
with you ways to get to the other side of fear."
Simpson and Lachey have gone through heartache, but they've moved on, as Lachey said on Today
in 2020, noting:
"There's definitely a mutual respect there."
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