Jessica Simpson’s latest weight loss ‘unleashed a whole new side of her personality’ before split from husband: source 

When Jessica Simpson first set eyes on Eric Johnson in 2010, she called it “the best meeting of my life.”

After living out her doomed marriage to fellow ’90s star Nick Lachey on a reality TV show, it seemed that she had finally found stability.

But this week, after months of rumors, Simpson and Johnson announced the end of their own 10-year marriage — with the singer revealing that, “Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage.”

Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson with their three children, from left, Birdie Mae, Ace Knute, and Maxwell Drew, in February 2020. Getty Images for Macy's Simpson posed with her kids — and no wedding ring — when they went back to school in September. Jessicasimpson/Instagram

Page Six is told that both Simpson, 44, and Johnson, 45, who share three children, have already engaged divorce lawyers, and their sprawling estate in Hidden Hills, Calif., has been listed for $17.9 million.

A family source first told us the couple had split back in September, adding they feared that Simpson was “in a bad place”.

Another insider said they were worried about Simpson — saying she had been absent from school functions, where she once had been a familiar face supporting daughters Maxwell “Maxi” Drew, 12, and Birdie Mae, 5, and son Ace Knute, 11. 

A family source first told us the couple had split back in September, adding they feared that Simpson, seen here in 2023, was “in a bad place.” Jessica Simpson / Instagram Simpson, seen here in 2017, has long talked about substance abuse issues that stemmed from her troubled childhood. GC Images

At the time, reps for the couple stayed quiet, even as Simpson and Johnson were seen without their wedding rings.

Simpson, who rose to fame with her hit “I Wanna Love You Forever” in 1999, has long talked about substance abuse issues — to alcohol and diet pills — that stemmed from her troubled childhood, including sexual abuse by a family friend.

But over the past few years, Simpson has said her confidence has grown, and she has been flaunting a very slender figure which she credits to “willpower.”

Simpson, seen here in a March 2024 Instagram post, has attributed her extreme weight loss to “willpower.” Jessicasimpson/Instagram “In the past, she always had to kill herself in the gym and via starvation diets to get slim and stay that way,” a source said of Simpson, seen here on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2017. ABC via Getty Images

Her new body has said the family source. “She suddenly felt 21 again — except when she was 21 for real, she was a married TV star who had to behave.

“In the past, she always had to kill herself in the gym and via starvation diets to get slim and stay that way,” the source added. Now, with her weight loss sticking, “She started to want to sow her wild oats in a way she never could,”

Simpson, who has talked openly about her battle with alcohol, has been sober since 2017. But while the family source insisted that Simpson is not drinking, Johnson is believed to fear that other issues may have taken control.

Simpson has been filling her Instagram full of pouty shots after going back in the recording studio. Jessica Simpson / Instagram

“To be fair to Jess, Eric has accordingly checked out — he’s been so over it and her for a while now and so infidelity on his part is not out of the question,” the source admitted. “But it’s also not out of the question on her part either.”

Neither Johnson nor a rep for Simpson returned requests for comment.

After largely turning away from music and acting to launch her multi-million dollar fashion brand, Simpson opened up about her struggles as a young woman in the music industry in her 2020 memoir, “Open Book.”

The singer posted this photo with the message, “This comeback is personal, it’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve.” Jessica Simpson / Instagram

In it, she revealed was sexually abused from the ages of 6 to 12 by the daughter of a family friend — a girl only a year older than her — and admitted that she relied on alcohol to her nerves while dating John Mayer, who made her feel insecure, after her divorce from Lachey.

She discussed the burden of her weight issues beginning at 17, claiming that’s when music producer Tommy Mottola told her she needed to lose 15 pounds.

Despite weighing just 118 pounds — she is only 5-foot-three – it led the singer to turn to diet pills in order to drop to 103 pounds.

Simpson continued to pop diet pills for “the next twenty years,” she revealed in the book.

Johnson, a source said, has been “so over [the marriage] and her for a while now.” Getty Images

She later admitted she had gained and lost 100 pounds three different times in her life, with the most recent being after her youngest child, Birdie, was born in 2019.

In 2021, Simpson revealed that she had thrown away her scale to focus on her overall health.

“It was like a Ouija board,” she explained at the time. “I have no idea how much I weigh. Like, I just want to feel good and be able to zip my pants up. If I don’t, I have another size. I have every size. I’ve really tried my hardest to not let that define me.”

Simpson was just 22 when she married Nick Lachey. The pair are seen together at an MTV bash in February 20211. FilmMagic

Still, she faced public scrutiny over her weight, with commenters accusing her of using Ozempic. “Oh, Lord. I mean, it is not — it’s willpower,” she told Bustle last year.

“I’m like, do people want me to be drinking again? Because that’s when I was heavier. Or they want me to be having another baby? My body can’t do it.”

It’s not just her weight that has led to fears for Simpson’s well-being.

She has had a rocky relationship with her dad and former manager, Joe Simpson, and accused him of deserting her mom Tina. WireImage

In 2022, she appeared to slur as she gave a video tour of her kids’ bedrooms for a Pottery Barn ad online.

The majority of the comments below the post were filled with users discussing Simpson’s appearance and speech.

“Is she ok?” one person wrote, while another claimed: “This is unnerving, she sounds like she is having a hard time talking and even slurring. Not to mention her appearance is shocking.”

Simpson and Johnson have put their sprawling estate in Hidden Hills, Calif., up for sale for $17.9 million. Photo Copyright John Chapple / http://www.JohnChapple.com

Simpson hit back, saying, “As much as I have learned to block out destructive noise…peoples’ comments and judgments can still hurt deeply with their incessant nagging ‘you will never be good enough.’

“The most important thing I have learned through the last five years without alcohol being a guard for escapism is that I CAN and ALWAYS WILL get through it,” she added.

Simpson met Johnson, a former defensive tackle for the Patriots, through mutual friends. 

The family promoted Simpson’s Fall fashion collection in LA in September 2022. Getty Images for Jessica Simpson

“We connected over both being divorced and having our hearts broken, and knowing who we wanted for the rest of our lives”, she told Access Hollywood.

The singer — who has a reported net worth of $200 million mainly thanks to her fashion brand, the Jessica Simpson Collection — said she has a prenup with Johnson, after admitting she never signed one before her first marriage to Lachey.

Despite settling into marriage and parenthood with Johnson, Simpson has revealed that her drinking came to a head in October 2017 when she failed to show up for her kids on Halloween.

Simpson recently announced the end of her union with Johnson by saying, “Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage.” jessicasimpson/Instagram

“I honestly couldn’t even tell you who got them ready. I was just dazed and confused, and I just wanted to go to sleep,” Simpson told Hoda Kotb on “Today” in 2020, “I didn’t take them trick-or-treating. I didn’t show up for my family. I took the picture and I made the world think that I showed up.”

The next day, Simpson pledged to quit drinking and start working with a therapist. “I just realized that I had to surrender,” she admitted.

Now, 14 years after her last album, Simpson is once again in the studio and has been recording new music in Nashville.

Simpson and Johnson signed a prenup before their 2014 marriage, the singer revealed. Photographer Group / Splash News

“I can’t wait for y’all to hear the soundtrack of my soul,” she wrote on Instagram in December.

“This comeback is personal, it’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve,” she said in November, sparking more rumors that things had disintegrated between her and Johnson.

“Their marital issues have felt suffocating for a while,” a source told People this week. “She needs to move on for her own well-being.”