‘I was taught to be a virgin until I got married’: Jessica Simpson reveals the shame she felt while being sexually abused by young female friend during her religious childhood
- Jessica Simpson revealed she had ensured sexual abuse by a young female family friend from age six to age 12, in her memoir Open Book
- The singer claimed she ‘knew something was wrong’ but ‘didn’t really understand what was happening’
- The abuse started with ‘tickling’ then became ‘extremely uncomfortable’
- Simpson initially feared the idea of asking for help from her parents for religious reasons
- At age 12 would finally admit the abuse to parents, Tina and Joe
- After coming forward she ‘never had to go back’ to her abuser
- The trauma followed Simpson into adulthood leading to substance abuse
- She’s hit rock bottom, while married to Eric Johnson, and would eventually seek help in November of 2017
- Now sober, the singer wants her audience to know trauma ‘isn’t [their] fault’
Jessica Simpson has reflected on the shame and confusion she felt while being sexually abused by a young female friend during her childhood.
The 39-year-old star candidly revealed in her new memoir Open Book that she was abused by a family friend’s daughter between the ages of six to 12 and detailed her emotions in a new interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb.
She explains that her abuser was herself the victim of sexual abuse.
Opening up: Jessica Simpson sat down with NBC’s, Hoda Kotb, on Wednesday to discuss the traumatic details of her childhood sexual abuse
‘At the time I didn’t really understand what was happening. I knew something was wrong. I knew it was wrong what was going on. This was a very close person, and she was being abused. It happened throughout a long time in my life,’ she said.
‘I was a preacher’s daughter. I was taught to be a virgin until I got married, and so I never wanted to share these sexual things that were happening because I didn’t want to hurt anybody.’
She eventually told her parents, and they stopped sleepovers
‘My parents’ reaction — they did the best that they could. That’s a heavy thing to hear from your child. They ignored it with their words, for sure, but they took action, and I never had to do the sleepovers again. I never had to go back.’.
In a separate interview with People magazine, she described the shame sue felt during that time in her life.
‘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,’ she says. ‘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.’
Details: ‘At the time I didn’t really understand what was happening’ she admitted to Kotb