Jessica Simpson Artistfacts

July 10, 1980
Jessica Simpson signed a record deal in 1997 when she was just 17 and released her first album, Sweet Kisses, two years later. She was very much a manufactured pop star, as she admitted years later. "I was told who I was as an artist, as a singer, what words I should be singing and exactly how," she told People in 2025. "Note for note, riff for riff."
She was part of the teen-pop boom of the late '90s and early '00s, and although she was nowhere near as popular and stars like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, she still sold about five million albums around this time. Her biggest hit is her debut single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," which went to #3 in the US.
She married Nick Lachey of the boy band 98 Degrees in 2002. A year later, they starred in the MTV reality series Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, where she said things like "You love my stinky ass." This love story didn't last: They got divorced in 2006.
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica was one of the first MTV reality shows with a regular cast. It launched in 2003, a year after The Osbournes gave us an inside look at Ozzy and his family.
In 2014 she married Eric Johnson, a tight end in the NFL from 2001-2007. The had three kids together - Maxwell (born in 2012), Ace (born in 2013), and Birdie (born in 2019) - before separating in 2024.
She made her film debut in 2005 playing Daisy Duke The Dukes Of Hazzard, a dumb but effective movie where her scenes wearing the character's signature cut-off shorts ("Daisy Dukes") went over well with male viewers. Simpson called it "a turning point in my career and my confidence as a woman." She later starred in the films Employee Of The Month (2006) and Blonde Ambition (2007).
Her most famous scene in the Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica reality show came when she was puzzled by a can of Chicken Of The Sea tuna, asking if it was chicken or fish. She later starred in a commercial for Chicken Of The Sea where she explains to her daughter that's it's not really chicken.
Her younger sister, Ashlee Simpson, is also a pop star and actress, with #1 albums in 2004 (Autobiography) and 2005 (I Am Me). Ashlee was married to Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy from 2008 to 2011.
She started writing lyrics to her songs starting with her 2003 album In This Skin. She says songwriting is a form of therapy for her.

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