Jessica Simpson Shares Birthday Tribute to Dad Joe Simpson: 'You Are My Heartbeat'
Jessica Simpson had some kind words to say about her father Joe Simpson in honor of his birthday on Wednesday.
The “A Public Affair” singer, 39, shared a sweet message to her dad on Instagram, accompanied by a black and white photo of the two .
“My entire life all I have ever wanted is to be the brightest light that you ignited within me to shine so that others could be guided into their own personal transcending greatness of being,” Jessica wrote.
“Thank you for always guiding me with love, leadership, and compassion to the unimaginable achievement of infinite dreams,” she continued. “There is nothing in life I am not strong enough for because of your ability to believe the truest purpose is always within reach.”
“Dad, you are my heartbeat and all that I am will forever be held by your love,” added Jessica. “Happy Birthday!!! I love you 🦋.”
Her words were met with a sea of likes from her followers, many sending their own birthday wishes to Joe.
“Happy birthday to Papa Simpson!” said one.
A post shared by Jessica Simpson (@jessicasimpson) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:01am PST
In her new memoir Open Book, Jessica recently revealed new details about her complicated and close relationship with her dad, who was also her manager.
In the book, she wrote that on her wedding day to Nick Lachey in 2002, her father asked if she was certain she wanted to go through with it, just before he walked her down the aisle.
“Dad, I’m walking down this aisle and getting married,” Jessica wrote, describing how she spoke the words “through gritted teeth.”
Jessica and her dad also went through a rocky patch after her parents divorced (which Joe told his daughter about just before she gave birth to her first child).
The two have since reconciled and remain very close. Jessica even stood up for Joe recently, telling Andy Cohen that she was “very” pissed a comment Lachey had made about her father during a years-old episode of Cohen’s talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
“That was low,” Jessica told Cohen. “And that’s, like, not for him to talk about by any means, because he’s not connected with us at all anymore. … He was trying to — he was just bitter, you know? He was just trying to take a dig.”
RELATED: Jessica Simpson on First Love Nick Lachey: ‘We Got Crushed by the Media and by Ourselves’
Open Book, which Jessica penned with scribe with Kevin Carr O’Leary, finds the former Newlyweds star sharing her truth about some of her more personal behind-the-scenes struggles — from her body image issues and plastic surgery secrets, to how she felt about being compared to her pop-girl contemporaries and her relationships with exes like Lachey and John Mayer.
One of her most vulnerable moments in the book? Jessica’s revelation that she was sexually abused as a young girl. The resulting emotional pain, along with other stressors, including career pressures, led her to self-medicate with alcohol and stimulants — a dependency that would later prompt her doctor to tell her her life was in danger.
“I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills,” she wrote.
Jessica got sober in November 2017 and hasn’t had a drink since. “Giving up the alcohol was easy,” she said. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.”
Therapy was the hard part, she went on to explain. As she wrote: “With work, I allowed myself to feel the traumas I’d been through.”
“Honesty is hard but it’s the most rewarding thing we have,” she said. “And getting to the other side of fear is beautiful.”
Open Book is on sale now.
