Jessica Simpson explains drinking was 'silencing' her, as she marks nearly three years sober
Looking back, Jessica Simpson’s decision to stop drinking alcohol was an easy one.
“I was at that point in my life where my kids were growing older and they were watching every move that I made. I just really wanted clarity,” Simpson said Thursday on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “I wanted to understand myself because... like, I didn’t even realize how much I was drinking and how much I was suppressing. I thought it was making me brave, I thought it was making me confident, and it was actually the complete opposite, it was silencing me.”
That was nearly three years ago. The Open Book author, whose husband Eric Johnson stopped drinking with her in solidarity, said that once she began therapy to work through the feelings she was no longer numbing, she discovered she had a lot to say.
“My therapist was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe somebody can cover that much trauma and fear and awareness,’” Simpson said. “It takes people their whole life to discover those things.”
And, despite the stress of the pandemic and all that’s come with it, Simpson has not even considered returning to her former lifestyle.
“People are like, ‘Don’t you want to drink during this pandemic? Oh, my god, aren’t your kids driving you crazy?’” said Simpson, the mother of three: 8-year-old Maxi, 7-year-old Ace and Birdie, 1. “I’m like, 'No, I do not want to drink.’ I have not wanted it. I feel like that’s a big blessing.”
Although her memoir came out less than a year ago, Simpson said she’s already had a big reaction to what she wrote about choosing to get sober. People tell her the book, based on her journal entries over the years, deeply affected them.
Simpson understands.
“I really had to get back inside of the person that I am,” she explained. “When you do that self-reflection, it’s very empowering. It takes a lot of courage. [But] I can promise anyone on the other side of that fear, that courage is so beautiful and it’s one of the most rewarding things and decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”
Simpson’s book also includes sections on her marriage to Nick Lachey and the sexual abuse that she endured from a family friend during childhood.
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