The Simpson sisters were huge in the early 2000s–especially Jessica–but have recently slipped away from the limelight. Why? Maybe on top of everything else in their lives, being “it girls” was just too much for them to handle. Born in 1980 in Abilene, Texas, Jessica Simpson is the oldest of the two sisters. Their mother, Tina Ann, was a homemaker and their father, Joe Simpson, was a psychologist and a Baptist youth minister. But, as soon as Jessica started pursuing her music and acting career, her father became her manager and her mother became her stylist.
Ashlee Simpson, on the other hand, is four years younger than her pop princess sister. Ashlee was born in Waco, Texas. Try as she might to be different from her older sister’s influence, Ashlee also ended up pursuing music and acting. Ashlee even went on to star in the musical Chicago on Broadway. But why do these talented sisters no longer have their names up in lights? Perhaps it is due to some childhood trauma or even something more recent. Check out these dark facts about Jessica and Ashlee Simpson’s upbringing, with a few dark facts about their adult life as well.
16 #HygieneProblems
In an interview in 2010 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jessica Simpson revealed she is not about dental care. As it turns out, she brushes her teeth only about three times a week and uses a t-shirt to wipe them off on other days. She says that her teeth are already so white and she does not like it when they feel slippery.
She did admit that she flosses and uses mouthwash every day. She claims that she knows it is gross, but she always has fresh breath and great teeth anyway. In another interview, she said that when she is 60 years old, her teeth will probably have fallen out anyway, so it does not really matter if she brushes or not. She thinks her teeth are strong and they do not need to be brushed. You do you, Jess.
15 Where Did Jessica’s Childhood Go?
Jessica started singing in the church choir when she was very young. When she was 10 years old, she auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club. She ended up being a semi-finalist for the cast alongside artists like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. However, she did not make the cut. She admitted later on that she was nervous in the final round after seeing Aguilera sing.
She returned to her church choir and was discovered by Proclaim Records when she was only 13. In her audition, she sang “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton and was signed on the spot. She began touring for her debut album with the record company but quit the tour soon after. Eventually, her debut album was sent to Columbia Records and she signed a deal at only 16 years old. With such a busy life, when did Jessica have time for a childhood?
14 Ashlee’s Sever Insecurities Almost Turned Dangerous
Interestingly enough, Ashlee is the talented dancer of the family. When she was only three years old, she began practicing classical ballet. At 11, she enrolled in the School of American Ballet in New York City. She was the youngest student ever admitted there. Ballet is very competitive, and apparently, some of the stress got to Ashlee. She battled with anorexia for six months.
Because ballerinas are expected to be slender, Ashlee was surrounded by other girls with eating disorders so she just fell into it. At her thinnest, she weighed only 70 lbs. standing at 5’2”. Her family intervened and made her eat. She has said that if it was not for family support, she would have had a harder time recovering. Her parents made her eat and she got to a healthy weight again.
13 Pregnancy Peculiarity
Jessica has been known for being a very interesting pregnant woman. During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, she revealed that she had a lot of amniotic fluid, saying that when her water broke, it would be like the pressure of a fire hydrant. She also said that it feels like she had a bowling ball sitting on her hoo-ha. Talk about oversharing.
At one point while she was pregnant, she took her heels off on the red carpet because stilettos honestly are not very comfortable. In another interview with Jay Leno, she said that her pregnancy bottom was like a “swamp bum,” because it could not be held in with Spanx. Talk about even more oversharing. After all that, Jessica admitted she loved pregnancy because it helped her connect with her body in a whole new way.
12 Hightailing From High School
Because Jessica had a record deal with Columbia Records when she was only 16 years old, she dropped out of high school. She eventually managed to get her GED. However, she might have been better off if she finished high school. Jessica appears to be a total ditz.
Though she does not mind being considered a “dumb blonde,” she wants people to know that she is not stupid. However, quite a few of her actions have proved otherwise. For instance, when she was filming a newlyweds TV show with her ex-husband Nick Lachey, she infamously thought that tuna was chicken because the label called the tuna fish “Chicken of the Sea.” Jessica admits that “I am ditzy and I am clumsy. I will walk into a room and fall on my face. That’s how I have always been. I’m not dumb.”
11 Little White Lies
There is a reason Ashlee Simpson was the youngest student to ever be admitted into the School of American Ballet in New York City—her father lied about her age saying that she was 12 instead of 11. Perhaps if they did not lie about Ashlee’s age, she would not have developed anorexia—karma, right? Okay, we're reaching, but still.
Though Ashlee’s dad was a Baptist youth minister, he has done quite a few controversial things to promote his daughters’ careers. In an interview with the New York Times, Joe Simpson said that he was desperate to help his children any way he could. He allowed his young daughters to pose in gentlemen’s magazines, even though they are a family with strong Christian values and the poses required the girls to wear limited clothing.
10 A New Face
Ashlee Simpson has admitted that she got some reconstructions done, but one cannot help but notice that her face looks completely different than it did in the early 2000's. In 2006, she stated that she thought it was a personal decision for people to go under the knife, but that they should not rush into it. She also said that everyone is entitled to do it if they do not like how they look.
Many think that she has gotten cosmetic procedures to look more like Jessica. She even returned to her naturally long blonde locks in 2016. While her rhinoplasty made quite a difference to her face in 2008, it is hard to know if she got more work done or if her face just changed naturally after the birth of her two kids. Who knows? One thing is for sure, Ashlee does not like to have the same hair color for long.
9 The Jessica Show, Part 1
After Jessica signed a deal with Columbia Records, the family relocated to Los Angeles, California to focus on Jessica’s blossoming career. Ashlee managed to score a few acting gigs, such as an appearance on Malcolm in the Middle, some commercials and the small film The Hot Chick—eventually, she even got her big break on the TV show Seventh Heaven.
But it was Jessica who was really in the spotlight at this point. Ashlee was merely one of Jessica’s backup dancers when she was discovered. It was around this time that Ashlee realized she wanted to be a musician, too. But, instead of being a Christian pop singer, Ashlee wanted a sound all her own. Furthermore, to combat her sister’s blonde girl-next-door look, she dyed her blonde locks black.
8 The Jessica Show, Part 2
After Ashlee dyed her hair black, she got a lot of attention in the media. She became an “anti-Jessica” with dark hair and a more alternative, singer-songwriter sound. Ashlee’s angsty songs also say a lot about her relationship with her family, specifically Jessica. On her Autobiography album, there is a song called “Shadow.” The song features lines like, “She was beautiful/she had everything and more” and “It used to be so hard being me/Living in the shadow/Of someone else’s dream.”
Besides all the angst, Ashlee got pretty real about how she felt. Poor girl. After Jessica had so much success on MTV’s Newlyweds, Joe Simpson pitched The Ashlee Simpson Show to the network, following in Jess’s footsteps. Luckily for her, the show was an even bigger success than Jessica’s and Ashlee has really been much better off than her blonde bombshell sister these past few years.
7 Blame It On The Binge-Eating
In the past few years, Jessica has really been struggling. Her weight has fluctuated drastically and in interviews, she seems a little bit off. Between work, being a mom and supporting her dad through his battle with cancer, Jessica turned to some unadvisable coping mechanisms. She turned to narcotics, alcohol, and binge-eating. She takes medicine to treat her anxiety and it was often mixed with Adderall or alcohol—not the best combo, Jess.
In an interview on Ellen, Jessica’s speech was slurred and she appeared pretty delusional. But some just blamed it on her ditziness. Her family tried to stage an intervention but was unsuccessful as it triggered a huge emotional outburst from Jessica. However, her clothing line is a thriving company making over $1 billion a year in sales, so we have to assume she's holding it together at least some of the time.
6 Why Jessica Didn’t Pursue Christian Music
When Jessica was only 13 years old, she signed a record deal for her debut album with Proclaim Records. Proclaim Records was a label that marketed very Christian music. Jessica, coming from a good Christian home with a great background singing in the church choir, was a great candidate for a record deal.
She started touring to promote her Jessica album, but quit fairly early on. Why? Her father claims he pulled her out because of her look—her chest was far too big, thus making it tough to be a successful Christian Singer without being objectified. Pretty weird, right? In an interview with GQ, Joe Simpson said of Jessica’s chest, “She’s got double Ds! You can’t cover those suckers up!” It seems odd that her own father is very aware of—and so vocal about—her chest size.
5 Daddy Issues
With Joe Simpson playing the role of his daughters’ manager, the relationship he had with them was a little off. Of their relationship, Jessica has been known to say that their father-daughter dynamic is put on the back burner—Joe was her manager.
Joe encouraged his daughters to expose every bit of themselves into the limelight, which was not always the best move. In fact, it was Joe’s idea to put Jessica’s new life with Nick Lachey on television—much like Keeping up With the Kardashians of today. Joe quickly soaked up all the perks of his daughters’ fame and fortune. He traded his Jeep for a Porsche, his minister clothes for designers, and even bought a 7,000 square foot home in LA in 2004.
Furthermore, one of Ashlee’s most successful songs is about her angsty relationship with her parents. The song begins with, “I was six years old/when my parents went away/I was stuck inside a broken life/ I couldn’t wish away.” Talk about a complicated relationship.
4 Yoko Romo
In November 2007, Jessica was recently divorced from her first husband, Nick Lachey, and began dating the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo. At one point, Simpson attended a Cowboys-Eagles game in which Romo’s throwing was terribly off. It was an embarrassing loss. Cowboys fans blamed Romo’s poor play on Simpson, believing that she was too big of a distraction for him to play well. She was even dubbed “Yoko Romo”—referencing Yoko Ono, who is believed to be behind the reason why The Beatles broke up.
Even the president at the time, fellow Texan George W. Bush, blamed Jessica for Romo’s on-field performance. Before a playoff game against the New York Giants, pictures of Simpson and him at a resort in Cabo San Lucas were leaked—so fans expected a terrible loss. Fortunately, the couple broke up in July 2009, and Romo continued as the quarterback of the Cowboys until the 2017 season.
3 More Romo Drama
Along with dating Tony Romo came some other drama. After Jessica’s divorce, she started dating singer John Mayer. They apparently had some crazy weird chemistry, which Mayer likened to a severe addiction. Simpson and Mayer split in 2007, and Simpson soon began dating Romo. However, rumor has it that Romo broke up with his current girlfriend—Carrie Underwood—to date Jessica. This triggered a feud between the two blonde beauties.
Carrie revealed that Romo still called her all the time even though Romo was dating Jessica. Jessica did not believe the rumors and continued to date Romo until he dumped her. Later, it was revealed that Jessica knew Romo was still talking to Carrie and she even asked him to stop. It sounds like Romo was not worth the drama for either of these ladies.
2 Loose Lips
Though both sisters are extremely talented singers, Ashlee was once caught lip syncing on live TV—how embarrassing. In 2004, Ashlee appeared on the comedy skit show SNL. She performed her first song, “Pieces of Me,” wonderfully. However, when the second song was supposed to begin, “Pieces of Me” began playing—revealing that Ashley had clearly lip-synced her song. Instead of rolling with it in classic SNL fashion, Ashlee panicked and began doing an awkward jig to her song on stage.
Ashley blamed the incident on her band, though it was a recorded track. She also blamed it on the fact that her acid reflux was acting up that day. However, the cringeworthy act made sure that Ashlee was no longer just Jessica Simpson’s little sister.
1 More Singing Issues
In 2009, Jessica Simpson put on a concert. What started as a great show ended tragically when Jessica revealed that she could not do it. She forgot the lyrics to her own song. She started over with a new song, and forgot the lyrics to that one as well. Sure, she was singing a lot of songs and sure, there were a lot of lyrics, but wouldn’t one think she had sung all of them hundreds of times?
Maybe she really is a little ditzy. Sources close to her revealed that she was pretty stressed and is a perfectionist—she always wants to give her performances her all for her audience. Jessica made it through her whole set, but walked off the stage wiping away tears. Hopefully the headliner—Rascal Flatts—was a better experience for fans.
Sources: In Touch, People, Reality Blurred, Daily Mail, People
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