Jessica Simpson Reveals Why She Confronted the Woman Who Abused Her as a Child

Jessica Simpson opened up about the abuse she suffered as a child for the first time in her newly published memoir, Open Book.

Jessica Simpson did not want to leave her abuse unspoken anymore. 

At the start of this year, the songstress and fashion mogul spoke out for the first time publicly in her memoir, Open Book, about the sexual abuse she suffered as child from a girl considered a family friend. However, years before she shared her story with the world, Simpson confronted her abuser. 

As the star recalled in an interview on Katherine Schwarzenegger‘s podcast, The Gift of Forgiveness, the performer addressed the matter with her unnamed abuser about eight years ago.

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“I went to her and I just said, ‘I know you know what was going on and I know that you were being abused,’ because she was being abused by an older guy,” Simpson told Schwarzenegger. “He was always there at the house as well, so he never touched me, but he would abuse her and she would come to me and do the stuff to me and so, like in so many ways I felt bad for her and I was allowing the abuse to happen.”

However, as Simpson further recalled, “I told her in the moment, ‘I know that you have a lot to deal with,’ and I told her that she should probably talk to someone and find a way to understand those moments and to forgive those moments and to heal from those moments.”

The star also made her forgiveness known to the woman. 

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“‘I just want you to know that I forgive you and I don’t really care to be around you that much ever again, but I do want you to know that I know what happened between us and I’m not gonna live in denial about it,'” she remembered saying.

As for why the singer confronted her abuser eight years ago, Simpson said she doesn’t remember, but that it came after her divorce from Nick Lachey.  

“I was celibate at the time and I was on this journey to explore myself and I knew that I couldn’t move forward without letting her know that—I wasn’t going to just leave it unsaid,” Simpson explained on the podcast. “I left it unsaid for far too long.”

“I knew that if I was honest with her, it would clear my conscience,” she noted. “I even sent her the book and I told her that I hope that it brings healing.”