Jessica Simpson opened about her ex-boyfriends, divorce, childhood sexual abuse and addiction struggles in her new memoir, Open Book, but she only hinted at rumors about her dad Joe’s sexuality. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, the 39-year-old explained her decision to keep mum on issues of the former minister’s sexuality, saying, “That’s not something we talk about. That’s not my story to tell.”
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But she did leave some very revealing snippets about their relationship — and how Joe, 61, is now — in her book. At one point she wrote about her 2014 wedding to Eric Johnson, “My father called me three days before we left for the wedding to tell me he was bringing his friend Jonathan, a young model he often shot for his new photography business.”
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She continued, “‘He wasn’t on the list,’ I said. There was a pause. I reminded myself that I needed to accept my father for who he was as he worked it out in real-time.”
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The “With You” singer also opened up about how upset she was when Joe and her mom Tina decided to get divorced in 2012. She wrote, “They had been married for 34 years, and I had a hard time being around them together since they’d stop loving each other.”
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Joe broke the news about the divorce to the fashion designer when she was in the hospital, pregnant with her daughter Maxwell, now 7. She wrote, “I was blindsided by this news, which triggered his natural salesmanship. He pitched it to me as a positive thing, ‘You gave me the confidence … You gave me the way out.’ Great, I thought to myself, ‘I broke my own heart.’ Dad moved on quickly, and maybe he’d planned it so long that he had a running start ahead of my mother.”
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Joe previously denied rumors that the male model was his boyfriend, writing on
Twitter in 2014, “More misinformation in the news. The guy in the pics is my modeling client. He was in Miami taking agency meetings. That’s it!!”
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Joe served as Jessica’s manager for most of her career, but their relationship became tense when she fired him from the role. She wrote, “I had [to] do it five times because he would not accept it. It left a lot of hurt feelings I didn’t know existed, and I knew I had to make the move to go forward with the ownership of my own career.”
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Photo credit: INSTARImages
But she did leave some very revealing snippets about their relationship — and how Joe, 61, is now — in her book. At one point she wrote about her 2014 wedding to Eric Johnson, “My father called me three days before we left for the wedding to tell me he was bringing his friend Jonathan, a young model he often shot for his new photography business.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
She continued, “‘He wasn’t on the list,’ I said. There was a pause. I reminded myself that I needed to accept my father for who he was as he worked it out in real-time.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
The “With You” singer also opened up about how upset she was when Joe and her mom Tina decided to get divorced in 2012. She wrote, “They had been married for 34 years, and I had a hard time being around them together since they’d stop loving each other.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
Joe broke the news about the divorce to the fashion designer when she was in the hospital, pregnant with her daughter Maxwell, now 7. She wrote, “I was blindsided by this news, which triggered his natural salesmanship. He pitched it to me as a positive thing, ‘You gave me the confidence … You gave me the way out.’ Great, I thought to myself, ‘I broke my own heart.’ Dad moved on quickly, and maybe he’d planned it so long that he had a running start ahead of my mother.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
Joe previously denied rumors that the male model was his boyfriend, writing on
Twitter in 2014, “More misinformation in the news. The guy in the pics is my modeling client. He was in Miami taking agency meetings. That’s it!!”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
Joe served as Jessica’s manager for most of her career, but their relationship became tense when she fired him from the role. She wrote, “I had [to] do it five times because he would not accept it. It left a lot of hurt feelings I didn’t know existed, and I knew I had to make the move to go forward with the ownership of my own career.”
Photo credit: INSTARImages
Photo credit: INSTARImages
