Jessica Simpson has always been candid about her struggles with weight, but in her new memoir, Open Book, she truly goes deep.
This includes how she was pressured into taking diet pills for 20 years.
TW: This article contains depictions or discussions of eating disorders and substance abuse and may be triggering to some readers.
She recently revealed to People that she knew she had to be as open and honest as possible when she was asked to write a memoir about her life.
This meant talking about the difficult things in her past, such as the sexual abuse she endured as a six-year-old child.
This tragically occurred when she was sharing a bed with the daughter of a family friend.
"I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong."
Poor thing.
When she did, Jessica's mother slapped her father's arm and yelled: "I told you something was happening."
"Dad kept his eye on the road and said nothing," wrote Simpson.
Later in the memoir, the mom of three revealed that she later turned to alcohol and drugs to help soothe this trauma — plus to help her get through the career pressures she faced once she found fame.
Thankfully, Simpson got sober in 2017 and hasn't touched the bottle since.
“Giving up the alcohol was easy,” she said. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.”
It was 1997 and the 17-year-old aspiring singer had flown to New York to sing "Amazing Grace" for Tommy Mottola, the then-chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia label.
"He wanted to sign me," she wrote in her memoir. "And then he said, 'You gotta lose fifteen pounds.'"
Which is not something anyone wants to hear.
She told him: "I was five-foot-three and weighed 118."
But then Tommy explained to her, "That's what it will take to be Jessica Simpson."
Even after her weight loss, she said that the label always wanted more.
For example, they soon urged her to "show more skin."
"By the time we got to the release of my second album's first single, 'Irresistible,' I was down to 103 pounds. Everyone went on about how great I looked, but I couldn't enjoy it because I was so freaking hungry."
The successful fashion designer also found the comfort and safety she so desperately needed in her husband, retired football player, Eric Johnson.
When Jessica quit drinking in 2017, she said that Johnson "gave up drinking the second I did."
“It’s been a long hard deep emotional journey, one that I’ve come through the other side with pure happiness and fulfillment and acceptance of myself." she said.
Open Book is available for pre-order now.
Will you be watching it? Let us know below in the comments!
