Jessica Simpson Talks Confronting Her Childhood Abuser After Years Of Self-Medicating Her Trauma With Alcohol

Jessica Simpson‘s upcoming memoir takes a deep dive into one of the darkest moments of her childhood.

Early excerpts and interviews about Open Book have absolutely shocked us as the 39-year-old singer-songwriter was candid about private struggles with addiction, difficult past relationships, and abuse.

Now, People has more from the hotly anticipated book, which details the painful child abuse the Dukes Of Hazzard star secretly suffered through from the ages of 6 to 12.

Related: Jessica Simpson’s Husband Fully Supports Her Sobriety!

In the latest excerpt shared with the publication, Nick Lachey‘s ex-wife explained her abuser was the daughter of a family friend who was only a year older than her. She described:

“It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable.”

Despite being so young at the time, Simpson said her instincts warned her something was off about that kind of behavior:

“As a child, I didn’t know what was going on. I just knew I wanted to protect everybody else in the room.”

The former reality TV star admitted the trauma and emotional pain shaped her life by exacerbating the fear she had of being alone and of being unable to stand up for herself. Unfortunately, she chose to numb memories of the experience with alcohol as she got older.

After getting sober in November 2017 and seeking therapy, Jess started her journey towards healing. Part of her transformative process included confronting her abuser:

“I needed to confront my abuser. It was extremely painful and still is. It’s still shocking. That little girl in me wanting to do the right thing, not knowing how to stand up for herself and not knowing how to stop it.”

With the clarity that came with sobriety and the support of her loved ones, Simpson has been able to work through feelings of guilt and shame about what happened to her:

“I felt like a lot of who I am, the character of who I am, was built through the trials and the pain of abuse. I allowed it to happen, so I felt that I was as much of the abuser as the abused. So I was very shameful during that time, from 6 to 12 years old.”

It breaks our heart to hear she could have ever placed the blame on herself. No child should ever be subjected to the things she went through.

Related: Jessica Gets Real About ‘Drinking & Pills’ In Her New Memoir

Ashlee Simpson‘s older sister also shared further about the moment when she told her parents, Tina and Joe Simpson, about the abuse when she was 12:

“Normally, I would’ve candy-coated it, and I didn’t. They understood why I needed to have it in the book. I know as parents they wanted to protect me from everything in the world. I was a preacher’s daughter and I was so protected — and also I wasn’t. It’s hard for a parent to hear that — but it also wasn’t their fault. It felt good to say it out loud and then it never happened again.”

Jessica continued, noting her parents never directly addressed the situation with her that day but did everything in their power to protect her moving forward:

“From that moment on, we never went back to that place and we were never alone in that situation again. It broke their hearts. Their way of dealing with it was to make sure that it never happened again.”

Now, as a mother with three beautiful kids of her own, including daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 6, and baby Birdie, 10 months, she hopes her story will help others to share their truth:

“I wish I would have spoken up earlier but I’m glad that I can now. As a mother, that’s why I wanted to tell people about it — that it’s not your fault.”

Wow. How brave of her to share all of this. We can only imagine what else is included in the rest of her book, which BTW, comes out on February 4.

Will U be picking up a copy to learn more? Sound OFF (below) and let us know!!

[Image via Fayes Vision/WENN]

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