Jessica Simpson is no stranger to body-shaming comments — she’s been famous for 25 years, after all — but “it hurts.” The 42-year-old entrepreneur spoke with Bustle about the scrutiny of her weight, most recently that she’s too thin. Although she had no problem addressing haters, the singer was more shy when it came to rumors about Mark Wahlberg. (More on that later.)
Simpson’s appearance made headlines in November when his sponsored post for Pottery Barn Kids went viral for all the wrong reasons. Some on social media were convinced she was using Ozempic because of her small frame, the FDA-approved diabetes drug that many in Hollywood (and beyond) use as a weight-loss drug.
“Oh Lord. I mean, it’s not [Ozempic]”, said Simpson, “it’s the will. I think to myself, do people want me to drink again? Because that’s when I was heavier. Or do they want me to have another baby? My body can’t do it.”
Simpson has been sober for over five years. She detailed her struggle with alcohol and her 20-year addiction to diet pills in her best-selling memoir, open book. The singer’s weight fluctuations have coincided with life’s ups and downs, not to mention her three pregnancies. (She and her husband Eric Johnson are the parents of Maxwell Drew, 11, Ace Knute, 10, and Birdie Mae, 4.)
“I’m lucky to have all sizes,” Simpson shared, explaining that she considers her changing body an asset. “For [my] brand, understand women [who buy our products]and for my psyche.”
Yet Simpson is only human.
“Am I going to let negativity derail me? No, I’m too old for that,” she added. “I’m too connected to myself right now to let this derail me. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
Simpson touched on another issue in Bustle’s interview that the internet seems to care deeply about.
Earlier this year, the singer posted an article for Amazon Original Stories that detailed a secret past romance with a “huge movie star.” Simpson wrote about how the famous actor, whom she never named, made her feel “like a call girl.” One clue she gave was that the mystery man was religious: “We had different religions, but the same respect for God.” It wasn’t long before social media sleuths pointed to Wahlberg as a potential suspect.
Bustle asked Simpson if she had heard from Wahlberg since the story was published in January. “She laughs – like a deafening laugh, throwing her head and sneering – before saying that she would absolutely not confirm the subject’s identity,” the interviewer wrote.
The only thing Simpson had to say, “There’s a lot of Catholics there.”