Jessica Simpson is proud to be sober after previously struggling with alcohol addiction.
The singer had long relied on alcohol to help her cope with traumas in her past. Her dependence came to a head in October 2017 when she failed to show up for her kids — Maxwell, Ace and Birdie, whom she shares with husband Eric Johnson — on Halloween.
“I honestly couldn’t even tell you who got them ready. I was just dazed and confused, and I just wanted to go to sleep,” Simpson said during a January 2020 interview on Today. “I didn’t take them trick-or-treating. I didn’t show up for my family. I took the picture and I made the world think that I showed up.”
The next day, Simpson pledged to quit drinking and start working with a therapist. “I just realized that I had to surrender,” she told Today host Hoda Kotb. “I just want to continue on the path that I’m on, and at this point in my life, I’m strong enough to deal with anything that comes my way. Because I don’t have something to retreat to that will numb me from actually going through it.”
Simpson celebrated her sixth year of sobriety in November 2023. Keep scrolling to read her candid quotes about the journey:
January 2020
“I had started a spiral and I couldn’t catch up with myself … and that was with alcohol,” Simpson told Kotb on Today. “Every day I would say it, ‘I’ll stop soon. I’ll cut back.’”
The fashion designer further explained that she initially didn’t realize that she had a “problem” with drinking. “I completely didn’t recognize myself,” she said. “I always had a glitter cup. It was always filled to the rim with alcohol. I just realized that I had to surrender. It was time. I had to give it up and I was ready. I’m not going to miss another day. … I’m going to be present.”
Jessica Simpson
February 2020
Simpson revealed to Buzzfeed News’ AM to DM that she already had a conversation with her eldest kids Maxwell and Ace about her addiction struggles “because I knew that kids at school would talk about it.”
“With my children, they know Mommy doesn’t drink wine because it makes her too silly,” she continued. “But for me, alcohol never made me mean. People didn’t know that I had a problem — they knew that towards the end it was getting to be too much, that I was not being myself and I wasn’t present in a room. … So, when I explained it to my kids they really understood that Mommy is just living her best life!”
February 2020
Simpson also discussed her struggles in her Open Book memoir, noting that she started to rely on Tylenol PM pills to sleep in the wake of her childhood sexual abuse.
“I took each pill like a magic potion because it freed me,” she wrote. “I was able to sleep in my own bed, or a bed on the road, without needing [my sister], Ashlee. I didn’t think I was dependent. In fact, those pills actually helped me feel independent.”
March 202o
Prior to writing Open Book, Simpson had started flipping through her old diaries and realized “how much stuff I haven’t really dealt with,” she said on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show.
“I was also looking at the girl that I was and the perspective that I had and I really missed that person. And so, within that is when I started to spiral with the drinking and trying to numb things,” Simpson added. “Then, I realized it was stuff I actually needed to talk about and face.”
August 2020
“People are like, ‘Don’t you want to drink during this pandemic? Oh, my God, aren’t your kids driving you crazy?’” Simpson said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show of being locked down amid the COVID-19 health crisis. “I’m like, ‘No, I do not want to drink,’ like, I have not wanted it. I feel like that’s a big blessing. Once I surrendered and gave it over I never looked back, and my husband did it with me, so that support was amazing.”
November 2021
Exactly four years after Simpson gave up alcohol, she shared an “unrecognizable” photo of herself.
“I had so much self-discovery to unlock and explore. I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self-respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity,” she wrote via Instagram. “Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and, quite honestly, I was exhausted. I wanted to feel the pain so I could carry it like a badge of honor. I wanted to live as a leader does and break cycles to advance forward — never looking back with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make for the rest of my time here within this beautiful world.”
November 2022
“The most important thing I have learned through the last 5yrs without alcohol being a guard for escapism is that I CAN and ALWAYS WILL get through it,” Simpson wrote via Instagram on her sober anniversary. “I am capable of pretty much anything I care enough about to put my mind to. I am present. I am deeply inspired. I am determined. I am honest. I care about other people.”
If you or anyone you know is facing substance abuse issues, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information 24/7.
