Jessica Simpson has been happily married since 2014, but back during her dating years, she says some men in the entertainment business were warned not to go out with her.
“I felt like any time it started to get a little bit serious, I was the person to run from because every guy would be listening to their publicist, who would be like, ‘Stay away, stay away. You’ll never be a respected actor, you’ll never be a respected musician, if you’re dating her,’” Simpson shared during a recent interview on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“But that was back then, so, at least that was the excuses I heard,” she added.
The singer and fashion designer also revealed that she dated a few artists in secret back in the day, with their relationships never making it into the media.
“I have dated some, a couple musicians, though. Some under the radar that people don’t know about,” she said. “But we like to keep some secrets.”
Simpson was previously married to Nick Lachey, and filed for divorce from him in 2005. She tied the knot with retired NFL player Eric Johnson in 2014 and they have three children: Birdie Mae, 2, Ace Knute, 7, and Maxwell Drew, who turns 9 on May 1.
The mom of three recently talked about how her children inspire her, and shared how her oldest daughter helped her face a lifelong fear of horses.
"We were doing a Jessica Simpson Collection photo shoot, and she wanted one of the horses that she rides to be in a shoot," Simpson said in an interview with Hoda Kotb on TODAY Thursday. "This was her way of (being) like, 'I'm gonna make Mom ride this horse.'
"She was like, 'Horses know that you're afraid, Mom. And it's not gonna relax until you put your shoulders down and breathe,’” she continued. “‘And Mom, let's just stand at the mountain and scream over the mountain.'"
Maxwell and Simpson then shouted together, “I throw my fear over the mountain!”
"And then I went back to the horse, and Maxwell handed me the reins and gave me the lead," Simpson continued. "It was a beautiful moment.”
"I actually follow their lead in a lot of things," Simpson added of her three children. "They have so much innocence. And they haven't had all the traumas and the dark stuff that we cling onto. And they're actually capable of making better decisions than we are.
"My oldest, Maxwell, teaches me every day to surrender,” she said.