Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey each established
themselves in the music industry during the 90s, but it was their hit reality show Newlyweds
that made them one of the "it" couples of the 2000s. Alas, the pop stars' relationship would not
make it to the next decade. Without their initial pursuits in the music
business, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey might never have met. When she was a kid, Simpson auditioned for
The All New Mickey Mouse Club years before getting her record deal with Columbia in 1997. According to the Dallas Observer, an A&R representative
listened to the singer's demo tape, then approved of her vocals in person, and took her to Sony's
New York headquarters. Tommy Mottola, then the CEO and Chairman of
Sony Music Entertainment, signed Simpson after hearing her perform live. According to CBS News, Nick Lachey attended
the School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati and left Miami University
in Ohio to pursue a music career. Nick, his brother Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre,
and Jeff Timmons would eventually become one of the biggest boy bands of the era. According to Sacramento News & Review : "98 Degrees was discovered backstage at a
Boyz II Men concert when they sang a cappella for a radio station." The band signed with Motown Records in 1996. The record deals and early opportunities were
huge milestones in Simpson's and Lachey's professional lives, but the events were also
instrumental in bringing the artists together later. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's dreams of
stardom would lead both of them to the 1998 Hollywood Christmas Parade. When their paths crossed at the holiday event,
sparks flew. Simpson wrote in her autobiography, Open Book: "He came over, walking in a more casual version
of the onstage boy-band saunter I'd come to see him do time and again, but still purposeful. 'Hi, I'm Nick,' he said. Hello, my life, I thought." The couple reunited soon after the parade
at a Teen People party in Boca Raton [BOH-kah RAH-toan], Florida. Simpson attended the event with her mother
and manager Tina Simpson, and Nick Lachey was there with his mom, too. As legend has it, Nick told his mother: "Mom, your mission for tonight is to get me
in good with this girl." Jessica confided in her mom as well, saying: "Oh, I said mom, that's the man I'm going
to marry." Simpson and Lachey's stars were on the rise
as their relationship blossomed. Simpson toured with 98 Degrees throughout
the summer of 1999, and the couple appeared on MTV's New Year's Eve party that December. Around the time of the release of Nick and
Jessica's "Where You Are" duet, Simpson was asked constantly about her love life. In Open Book, she remembered a Teen People
interview: "Where they asked me about being a virgin. I said I wanted to wait until I got married." As BuzzFeed wrote in 2021: "The media fetishized her virginity, sexualized
the hell out of her, and then slut-shamed her any time she did anything remotely sexual." Simpson shared in her memoir that she was
surprised at all the attention surrounding her personal life and said, "[Interviewers] asked Nick and me about my
virginity at every appearance, and my take was that it wasn't so much about 'saving myself'
but building up anticipation." Lachey and Simpson were both so busy being
pop stars that they spent much of their relationship talking to each other on the phone. "If anyone's sitting at home thinks it's cool
and exciting to date Jessica Simpson, this is it. All we do is skip rocks." Simpson wrote: "We were both concerned about our careers,
and our anxieties just seemed to feed off each other." She told Lachey that the two of them: "Needed to take a break… just to see what
would happen if we both focused solely on work." But the two stayed in contact and remained
supportive. Simpson went on tour alongside Destiny's Child,
and Lachey continued his music career with 98 Degrees. When her Irresistible album sold 120,000 copies
in its first week, Simpson recalled that Lachey sent flowers and a card. She said he wrote: "I'm very proud of you and with what you're
doing in your life. I'm happy I can be a part of it. I love you." In September 2001, Lachey was in New York
City to perform a tribute to Michael Jackson at Madison Square Garden. In Open Book, Simpson shared that Lachey reached
out to her following the 9/11 attacks and told her: "I only want to be with you." In February 2002, Lachey asked Simpson to
marry him while they were in Hawaii. Simpson told People: "I was wearing a huge sweatshirt that came
down to my knees. If I had known he was going to propose, I
would have at least dressed up cute." Simpson was all in when it came to wedding
planning, but Lachey was more interested in watching the budget. In her memoir, Simpson talked about how Lachey
wanted a prenuptial agreement, but she wasn't interested. She revealed: "Part of the tabloid mythology of our marriage
is that my dad played hardball and refused. No, this was an intimate discussion between
a man and his soon-to-be wife. Which is to say that I exploded." Even though her dad wasn't the driving force
in dropping the prenup talk, Simpson did claim her father, quote, "was awful through the
whole engagement" and against the marriage. In preparation for the big day, Simpson said
she followed a dangerously strict diet that had begun in her teen years at her record
label's urging. She wrote: "I had upped my dosage of diet pills and was
eating even less to be super-thin for the wedding. Speedy and hungry, I was easy to set off." Jessica Simpson became Mrs. Lachey in Austin,
Texas on October 26, 2002, with more than 300 guests present. Simpson revealed to InStyle that she had the
lyrics to the 98 Degrees ballad "My Everything" etched into her engagement ring. As Simpson shared in her memoir, the newly
minted Lacheys became even more famous when their reality show, Newlyweds; Nick and Jessica,
debuted on MTV. The 2000s series set the couple up for drama,
and they had to deal with the duality of living their lives while becoming entertaining caricatures
of themselves. "Is this chicken what I have or is it fish? I know it's tuna but it says chicken." Simpson wrote: "When the show premiered on August 19, it
was like someone slammed the accelerator on our lives and marriage, pushing it to the
highest possible speed." Both Simpson and Lachey have acknowledged
the problems that their Newlyweds personas created. Lachey told Rolling Stone: "Jessica and I began playing these parts even
when we were by ourselves. It became a truly blurred line. There was a question about what truly was
our reality." Like all reality TV, the activities captured
on the show weren't always real-life. The camping trip episode in season one was
the production's idea, not the couple's. Simpson recalled: "As Nick did stuff like load the car or cook
the burgers, I asked aloud, 'Am I supposed to be helping?' Not so much to fulfill my role as a new wife
but to act out my role as a character." The whole concept of the Newlyweds show was
Jessica's dad, Joe Simpson's, idea. She recounted in her book that her dad pitched
the reality series in hopes of getting her music more MTV airtime. The cameras kept rolling for Newlyweds, but
the spark between Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson dissipated with time. The couple was surrounded by attention as
Simpson's music excelled while Lachey's solo ventures didn't. Lachey told Rolling Stone: "Jessica's label did this really smart thing
and tied her next single into the show." Lachey's label didn't seize the opportunity
to do the same, and he said his record "stagnated" as a result. In her 2003 Rolling Stone cover story, Simpson
said: "I believe Nick and I are going to last forever. And if we don't, it'll make a good reality
show." Simpson hinted that she and Lachey were still
in love, but they didn't necessarily get along. She noted: "Everything I did seemed to annoy him." The couple had arguments over money, with
Lachey continually surprised at Simpson's expensive purchases. Some Newlyweds episodes show him questioning
the money she spent on sheets, underwear, and a $55,000 watch for his birthday. Simpson and Lachey continued to have trouble
with one another and grew more distant. Rumors began to swirl about divorce and infidelity
on both sides, particularly regarding Lachey's night at a bachelor party and Simpson's time
with her The Dukes of Hazzard co-star Johnny Knoxville. In her book, Simpson noted of she and Knoxville: "[We] were both married, so this wasn't going
to get physical. But to me, an emotional affair was worse than
a physical one." Simpson continued: "We didn't want to give anybody the satisfaction
of seeing us publicly humiliated with a divorce, so we continued to play our 'Newlyweds' roles." Lachey had a slightly different point of view
at the time, telling Rolling Stone: "I wasn't trying to defend myself in the press. I was trying to defend my marriage to my spouse." The couple worked as a team once more for
a trip to Iraq to entertain and spend time with troops. Simpson wrote that they gave marriage counseling
a try after the trip, but it didn't save the relationship. As Simpson recalled in Open Book, she told
Lachey just before Thanksgiving 2005 that she wanted a divorce. Lachey admitted to Rolling Stone he felt,
quote, "blindsided," and even after they decided to "sleep on it," Simpson was sure she was
ready to move on. In December 2005, People reported Simpson
filed for divorce from her then-husband. Their joint statement read: "After three years of marriage, and careful
thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways. This is the mutual decision of two people
with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other. We hope that you respect our privacy during
this difficult time." Simpson recounted in her memoir a conversation
she had with Lachey where he told her he would go to counseling again in an effort to make
their relationship work. She replied: "Love is not enough. If love was enough, I would stay forever." In 2006, fresh starts for both Simpson and
Lachey were in the works. The 98 Degrees member went solo and released
"What's Left of Me," which sold more than 500,000 copies and went gold. That same year, Total Request Live VJ Vanessa
Minnillo appeared in the music video for Lachey's post-split ballad. While it wasn't the first time their paths
crossed, it set the wheels in motion for a relationship. The now-couple recalled to Billboard that
sparks flew when it was time to promote the clip on TRL. Chatting with Tamron Hall about the first
time she saw the video for "What's Left of Me," Simpson said: "He did play it for me that night and it was
like, it was heartbreaking and I didn't understand I mean I did understand." After the divorce, Simpson focused on her
clothing and lifestyle brand, Jessica Simpson Collection. She also continued to pursue an acting career
and got back in the dating game. In her memoir, Simpson discussed her life
as a single woman and the beginnings of her tumultuous relationship with John Mayer, whom
she, quote, "dated in secret for months." Now that interested parties have read Jessica
Simpson's memoir, it's clear she and Nick Lachey are living separate, successful lives
without the past intruding too much. After Nick and Vanessa Lachey became husband
and wife, Simpson married retired NFL tight end Eric Johnson in 2014. The Lacheys have three children together,
and Johnson and Simpson have three kids as well. In addition to happy personal lives, Lachey
and Simpson are doing well professionally. Following his big win on The Masked Singer,
Nick Lachey is making music and performing again with 98 Degrees. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the
boy band launched "98 Days of Summer" in June 2021, promising fans new music and live shows. Simpson continues to tell her story. According to Variety, Simpson's memoir inspired
a scripted series in addition to an unscripted docuseries, with two essays for Amazon Original
Stories. When Simpson released the first piece in 2021,
she wrote on Instagram: "I felt strong, resilient, and God-inspired
through my pen teaching me as I was sharing with you ways to get to the other side of
fear." Simpson and Lachey have gone through heartache,
but they've moved on, as Lachey said on Today in 2020, noting: "There's definitely a mutual respect there." Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your
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