Jessica Simpson has been in the public eye for a pretty long time, but while many of her fans likely thought they'd heard about most of the ups and downs of the singer / actress / fashion mogul's life, she decided to share her side of those many events, and drop some bombshells about things she'd never spoken about before, when she released her memoir, Open Book, in 2020. Now, that very book is has come out in paperback, and Simpson has revealed even more for it, including her feelings about Nick Lachey moving on so quickly after their divorce.
The paperback edition of Open Book (via Entertainment Tonight), which released on March 23, was updated from the original memoir and now includes several never before seen photos, along with a new introduction. But Jessica Simpson also added some new, handwritten, diary entries to the book, and one of them details her feelings upon finding out that her ex-husband, Nick Lachey, had moved on less than a year after their divorce. As you might imagine, Simpson was quite hurt at the news, and wrote a journal entry which said:
So, Nick, you're with another already? Seems that you forgot the love you spoke to me. I'm saddened beyond belief. Alone in the dark, with no one to call my own.
Most people will likely remember that fans got to watch some of the trials and triumphs of the marriage between Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey on Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, the MTV reality series which followed the couple for three seasons. The series helped to propel the already well-known duo and make the singers household names, but there was trouble for them in real life. They had married in late October 2002, but by mid-December 2005 had filed for divorce, with the process being finalized at the end of June the following year.
Lachey began dating MTV host Vanessa Minnillo in the same year that his divorce from Simpson was finalized, so it makes complete sense that it would have hurt her to know that he had, seemingly, moved on so quickly from their relationship. Anyone who's been through a hard break up will know that moving on can be difficult, but sometimes the hardest part is watching the person you used to be with go on to, apparently, find their happily ever after without you. This would be especially true when it takes less than a year for such a thing to happen.
It's clear from what Jessica Simpson wrote back then that she was very upset over Nick Lachey's ability to move on so fast after she filed for divorce. However, last year while promoting the book, even she was able to put it into some more perspective, noting that there had been tension between them as her star rose, and that they felt additional pressure just from being held up as couple goals, when really they were like any other marrieds, and weren't perfect. She also noted that "we both were at fault in a lot of things," so it sounds like she's been able to fully process everything that happened between them.
Now, of course, both have moved on with their own happy families. Simpson re-married in 2014 and has three young children with her husband, while Lachey and Minnillo married in 2011 and have three kids of their own. Luckily, even though I'm sure the split was hard, both parties have been able to move on and create the lives, and relationships, that they want.
