Jessica Simpson Cancels Concert Over Safety Fears

She went on to describe a pattern of constant pressure and self-doubt throughout her early career.

'There were just all these things that I had to be to be 'Jessica Simpson,' or the version of 'Jessica Simpson' they believed I should be to be successful. I always felt like a failure, like, I was never good enough.'

Simpson has also spoken about this period in a March 2025 Rolling Stone interview, where she reflected on competing in a crowded pop landscape.

Looking back, she said: 'I was never gonna win because I had someone like Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera] ahead of me, who were selling so many more records.'

She also described tensions over her image and creative control with her record label.

'I didn’t want to dance, I didn’t want to wear a head mic. But I agreed to do it, because I worked for Sony, and I didn’t want to let them down, and I felt like I was constantly letting people down. Even myself probably, because I wasn’t singing words I wrote.'

It wasn’t until she began writing her own music that she achieved her first chart-topping single with 2004’s With You.

More recently, Simpson’s music has taken on a deeply personal tone, inspired by her divorce from Eric Johnson.

The former couple share three children - daughters Maxwell, 14, and Birdie, seven, and son Ace, 13.

Simpson announced her separation from Johnson, whom she married in July 2014, in January 2025.

At the time, she said in a statement: 'Eric and I have been living separately, navigating a painful situation in our marriage.'

Breakup rumors first began circulating in November 2024 when she teased new music online, writing: 'Interviews in my Nashville music room where I unearthed my singular magic. This comeback is personal. It’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve.'