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Jessica Simpson Admits Her Alcohol Addiction Began to ‘Spiral’ in TV Interview: ‘I Had to Give It Up’
She’s letting it all out. Jessica Simpson will open up about her struggles with alcohol addiction for the first time in a new interview that airs on Wednesday, January 29, on NBC’s TODAY.
“I had started a spiral and I couldn’t catch up with myself,” the singer says during an upcoming interview with Hoda Kotb. “I was just like … spiraling, chasing my tail. And that was with alcohol.”
“Were you worried like, ‘This is getting out of control?'” Hoda, 55, asks Jessica, 39, in clips released before the TV interview. “Oh, every day I would say it,” she performer responded. “And I would say it openly to everyone. ‘I know.’ Like, ‘I know. I’ll stop soon … I’ll cut back. But it took … for me to cut back, like, I’m an all or nothing girl. So like, I didn’t know it was a problem until it was.”
.@hodakotb’s on assignment in California, where she just sat down with Jessica Simpson.
Simpson gets very candid about her life and secret struggles. Full conversation tomorrow on TODAY. pic.twitter.com/V3uu13bLqq
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 28, 2020
Jessica continued to get candid about her struggles in another clip and says she “didn’t recognize” herself. She tells Hoda that she “always” had a special “glitter cup” that was “filled to the rim with alcohol.”
“I just realized that I had to surrender,” the actress adds. “It was time. I had to give it up. And I was ready. I’m not gonna miss another day.” Jessica says in the very honest interview that she wanted to “be present,” and likely a big part of that is wanting to be there for her kids — Maxwell, 7, Ace, 6, and Birdie, 10 months, whom she shares with her husband, Eric Johnson.
.@JessicaSimpson tells @hodakotb in her first television interview after opening up about her battle with addiction: "I completely didn't recognize myself…I just realized I had to surrender." More of the interview airs tomorrow on @TODAYshow. pic.twitter.com/jUh7A0oD0a
— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) January 28, 2020
Before this interview, the singer did note in her new memoir, Open Book, that she self-medicated to deal with traumatic sexual abuse from when she was a child. “I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills,” she wrote.
Jessica also previously revealed she got sober after a Halloween party in 2017. “Giving up alcohol was easy,” she told People magazine in an interview published on Wednesday, January 22. “I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.” She began going to therapy, and said, “With work, I allowed myself to feel the traumas I’d been through.”
We wish Jessica all the best as she continues to heal from her past and move forward. Her candid interview airs tomorrow on NBC’s TODAY.
