Jessica Simpson ‘felt Nick Lachey’s hate’ after trying to ‘fix’ him with ‘sex’

Forget Britney and Justin, the noughties were all about Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey and their reality TV show, Newlyweds.

The couple met at the Holly Christmas Parade in 1998, where at the time, 98 Degrees star Nick was the bigger deal out of him and Jessica.

Aged just 18 when they got together, Jess famously saved herself for marriage and walked down the aisle to become Mrs Lachey on October 26, 2002 - 18 years ago today.

But trouble soon set in, with Jessica revealing in her 2020 autobiography, Open Book, how the seven year age gap became an issue.

“My childishness, which seemed so cute and sweet when I was first with him, seems to annoy him. Now, everything I said seems to annoy him,” she wrote.

Towards the end of their marriage, Jessica, 40, claimed she had an 'emotional affair' and exchanged love letters with her Dukes of Hazzard co-star Johnny Knoxville. Johnny denied reports of an actual affair at the time.

“I felt a force drawing us together,” she wrote of the Jackass star, who was then still married to first wife, Melanie Lynn Clapp.

She continued: “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. And Johnny and I had that.”

Then just before Thanksgiving in 2005, Jessica told Nick she wanted a divorce leaving him heartbroken.

He poured his feelings into break-up album, What's Left of Me, and when Jess saw an MTV documentary about the making of the record just before their divorce was finalised, she decided to reach out.

“I just wanted to know what he thought of me now, because at that point I had no idea,” she wrote.

“[He] recreated our life for the video, casting his future wife Vanessa Minnillo to play me as this cold, unfeeling person. I knew he did this to hurt me. It didn’t make me cry, it made me mad.”

Still, the star said she felt responsible for him “breaking down in front of the world,” and that she wanted to 'fix' him.

He agreed to go to her house where they listened to the album before Jessica claimed one thing led to another.

It was not, however, a positive experience according to the star.

She continued: “He rang the bell, and out of reflex I hugged him. I meant it, too. Despite my anger, I missed him.

“I didn’t know any other way to make it better, so I slept with him.

“He didn’t stay the night. I was relieved because I could feel his hate. The whole situation was very dark. When he walked out the door, I knew I would never see him again.”

Nick went on to marry Vanessa Minnillo in 2011 and have children Camden, eight, Brooklyn, five, and three-year-old Phoenix.

And on the release of his ex's book back in February, he insisted he hadn't read it so had no idea what she had or hadn't said.

"Obviously, it was a long time ago. We've all moved on," he told Today.

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