Jessica Simpson sat down with “Today” show host Hoda Kotb and spoke honestly about the struggles she faced with alcoholism, which she details in her upcoming memoir, “Open Book.”
“I had started a spiral and I couldn’t catch up with myself,” the former reality TV star said during the sit-down, airing in full on Wednesday. “And that was with alcohol.”
She told Kotb she recognized her drinking was getting out of hand, but it wasn’t easy for her to dial it back.
“I would say it openly to everyone, ‘I know. I know, I’ll stop soon. I’ll cut back,'” Simpson said in the interview. “For me to cut back, like I’m an all-or-nothing girl, and so I didn’t know it was a problem until it was.”
She added: “I completely didn’t recognize myself.”
The pop-star-turned-entrepreneur said she used to have a special glitter cup on hand that was filled with alcohol.
“I just realized that I had to surrender. It was time,” Simpson explained. “I had to give it up and I was ready. I’m not going to miss another day.”
She was tired of missing moments at holidays like Halloween and Christmas and wanted to be present.
In November 2017, she got sober. She details in the book about how therapy helped her heal.
“Giving up the alcohol was easy,” she wrote. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.”
Earlier released excerpts from Simpson’s book, out Feb. 4, also reveal that she was sexually abused as a child.
“I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim, but somehow I felt in the wrong,” she wrote. She wrote that she shared the abuse with her parents when she was 12.
“Giving up the alcohol was easy,” she wrote. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.”
Earlier released excerpts from Simpson’s book, out Feb. 4, also reveal that she was sexually abused as a child.
“I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim, but somehow I felt in the wrong,” she wrote. She wrote that she shared the abuse with her parents when she was 12.