Jessica Simpson Reveals She Was Sexually Abused as a Child
Jessica Simpson revealed that she was sexually abused as a child.
The 39-year-old businesswoman, who details her past struggles in her upcoming memoir, Open Book, shared with People that she was "killing" herself with alcohol and pills because of her past trauma.
The alleged abuse began when Simpson was six years old, when she shared a bed with a family friend's daughter.
"It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable," she recalls in an excerpt from the book.
At twelve years old, Simpson finally told her parents about the abuse while they were on a road trip.
"I told you something was happening," Simpson's mother, Tina, told her father, Joe. "Dad kept his eye[s] on the road and said nothing," Simpson writes in the memoir. "We never stayed at my parents’ friend's house again but we also didn’t talk about what I had said."
After struggling for years, Simpson got sober in November 2017 after she revealed her addictions to alcohol and pills with friends while at a Halloween party. She has since been going to therapy twice a week.
"Giving up the alcohol was easy," Simpson shared with the publication. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb." She added that therapy was the hardest part for her, which allowed her to feel her past trauma.
"When I finally said I needed help, it was like I was that little girl that found her calling again in life," she explained. "I found direction and that was to walk straight ahead with no fear."
Open Book also includes an audio book version and six previously unreleased songs. "It’s been a long hard deep emotional journey," she told the outlet. "One that I’ve come through the other side with pure happiness and fulfillment and acceptance of myself. I’ve used my pain and turned it into something that can be beautiful and hopefully inspiring to people."
Open Book is available February 4.