Jessica Simpson is celebrating how far she’s come in her sobriety journey. Seven years ago on Halloween, the 44-year-old star reached her breaking point. In 2017, she realized she wasn’t in any state to help her kids get ready for Halloween. “I was terrified of letting them see me in that shape,” she wrote in her 2020 memoir Open Book. “I am ashamed to say that I don’t know who got them into their costumes that night.” After that experience, she decided to give up alcohol for good.
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Jessica celebrated seven years of sobriety recently.
“Something’s got to stop. And if it’s alcohol that’s doing this and making things worse, then I quit,” Jessica said to her friends after Halloween in 2017, according to People. Now, she’s celebrating seven years of sobriety. On November 1, she shared a black-and-white photo in which she’s looking out the window of a plane on Instagram. “7 yrs ago today I walked myself into the light of being alcohol free 🤍,” she captioned the post.
In August, she celebrated her son’s birthday.
The post about Jessica Simpson’s sobriety journey comes a few months after a fan’s comment on one of her Instagram posts pushed her to address rumors about her alcohol consumption. On August, 5, she posted a picture of one of her children, Ace, to celebrate his 11th birthday.
“I’m gonna be a braggin’ Mom for a moment and just say that I have the kindest, most handsome 11yr old son on the planet,” the proud mom wrote at the time. “Fun fact: we both find lucky pennies randomly every other week and use them to WIN my scratchers together. Mama loves you Ace Knute Johnson- OH SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!”
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Commenting on Jessica’s birthday post for her kiddo, someone told Jessica to stop drinking.
The birthday post just included a picture of Jessica’s son Ace, but still, someone in the comments accused Jessica of drinking too much.
“STOP DRINKING!” the person commented on the birthday post. Though the comment seemed unrelated to the birthday message, Jessica decided to address the allegations by responding to the comment directly.
“I haven’t wanted or touched alcohol since October 2017 and it has been the best decision I’ve made for myself and for my family,” Jessica responded. “Thank. You for your concern, but you have me very misunderstood. Sending love your way.”
Jessica also opened up about her sobriety journey in 2021.
On November 1 in 2021, Jessica took some time to reflect on her sobriety journey. At that point, she had been sober for four years, but the person she was four years earlier felt “unrecognizable” to her.
“I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore,” she wrote at the time. “I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity. Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and quite honestly I was exhausted.”
She addressed the stigma associated with alcoholism.
Though Jessica was struggling with alcohol addiction at the time, alcohol was not the root cause of her problems, she explained in the 2021 post. “There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic,” she said at the time. “The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage.”
She continued, “The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was.” She added, “I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do. I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad.”
After navigating this healing process and giving up alcohol, Jessica said, “I am free.”