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- In her new memoir, Open Book, Jessica Simpson revealed that she had an "emotional affair" with her Dukes of Hazzard costar Johnny Knoxville while she was married to Nick Lachey.
- Although the two never became physically intimate, she wrote that the emotional connection felt like a "betrayal" worse than sex.
Jessica Simpson isn't shying away from telling her story. From painstakingly detailing her recovery from addiction to dropping the fact that she once unwittingly kissed Justin Timberlake for a bet, the singer-actress is proof that the recipe to moving forward is embracing your past.
The confessions don't end there. Per People, Simpson's new memoir, Open Book, also includes a revelation about her relationship with Johnny Knoxville, her costar in the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard. The two shared a deep, "emotional affair" during her marriage to Nick Lachey.
"I could share my deepest authentic thoughts with him, and he didn't roll his eyes at me. He actually liked that I was smart and embraced my vulnerabilities," she wrote. "He believed in me and made me feel I could do anything."
She also said she "felt a force drawing [us] together" and "wondered why [she] was open to this." She continued, writing, "Now I was afraid I couldn't trust myself."
The last time she felt such a strong emotional connection was with her father, she divulged, adding, "Certainly not my husband."
Simpson ensured that things never got physical between the two. "First off, we were both married, so this wasn't going to get physical," she wrote. "But to me, an emotional affair was worse than a physical one. It's funny, I know, because I had placed such an emphasis on sex by not having it before marriage. After I actually had sex, I understood that the emotional part was what mattered. ... Johnny and I had that, which seemed far more of a betrayal to my marriage than sex."
Simpson and Lachey eventually divorced in 2005, after seven years of being together and three years of marriage.
In a recent interview with the Today show, Lachey talked about Simpson. "I'll be honest, I obviously haven't read the book," he said, sitting next to his wife, Vanessa Lachey. "So, I don't know what she said or what she revealed there, but I'm certainly happy for her and her life. I know she is happy for us."
As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.
