Jessica Simpson’s inner battle with the public’s comments about her weight left a lasting mark.
“I don’t think people always realized that there was a human being, a beating heart and working eyes with actual feelings behind those headlines and that words can hurt and stay with you for a lifetime,” she told People in an interview published Wednesday.
A day earlier, the former pop star and “Open Book” author released new diary entries in the paperback version of her memoir, in which she described her feelings over the unjust scrutiny she faced for wearing her infamous “mom jeans” at a chili cookout in 2009.
“Today my heart breaks because people says I’m fat,” she journaled at the time. “Why does the cruel opinion of this world get to me?”
Simpson, 40, also admitted that she was at times just as cruel to herself about her weight.
“Last week I read back to my journals from 1999 and I beat myself up about how fat I [was] before I even gave the world a chance to . . . ” she wrote in an entry.
“I spent so many years beating myself up for an unrealistic body standard that made me feel like a failure all of the time,” Simpson told People, reflecting on her own words. “I am still a work in progress when it comes to self-criticism but now I have the tools to quiet those voices in my head when they speak up.”
The now-mother of three, who shares 8-year-old daughter Maxwell Drew, 7-year-old son Ace Knute and 2-year-old daughter Birdie Mae with husband Eric Johnson, told People that she hates that she was “treated as an object to be tossed around like a rag doll.”
However, Simpson recognized that times have changed and there is a “wonderful” body positivity movement now.
She said, “I believe in my heart that a healthy body and a sound mind-body connection are what’s truly important and help me accept imperfections as beauty.”