I know it’s weird to say this, but damn, Jessica Simpson has some beautiful kids. I’m posting some of these family photos from Jessica’s social media to show that despite all of the drama she went through, Jessica got her happy ending – she has a husband she adores and three beautiful kids. Her husband is Eric Johnson, and they’ve been together since 2010. I don’t think he does much besides “be a great dad” and “golf.” But that’s probably all she wanted, and for what it’s worth, he seems to adore her as much she adores him. Eric also gave up booze when Jessica had her come-to-Jesus moment more than two years ago about her substance abuse. Jessica described what happened in her memoir, Open Book, and in her cover story in People.
In her revealing upcoming memoir, Open Book, excerpted in this week’s PEOPLE, Jessica Simpson writes about falling in love with former football player Eric Johnson, the man she married and the father of their three kids: daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 6, and baby girl Birdie, 10 months. They met in 2010 when a mutual friend invited Johnson to a party at her house. The spark was instant. “We connected on all levels,” Simpson says. And, as she writes, “We both were ready for the real deal.”
The couple married in 2014 and when Simpson made the decision to give up alcohol in November 2017, Johnson did the same.
“Eric gave up drinking the second I did,” she says. “He said, ‘I’ll do it with you, babe.’ It was like no biggie and he hasn’t gone back or looked back. It’s just the way he i. He’s a very selfless and loving person who is the most incredible father on the planet.”
I kind of wonder if Eric knew that her substance abuse was getting out of hand already, because it feels like… he had that prepared, you know? Anyway, I’m glad that they’re sober together, that probably helps her a lot. I hope Eric really is the good guy she believes him to be. If he breaks her heart, I will RUIN him! Or not, I don’t know. I have been enjoying all of these gossip-nostalgia stories from Jessica’s memoir so much!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Jessica’s Twitter.
Wow beautiful kids …and this is a sweet story. I’m glad both Nick and Jessica ended up happy and blessed.
It is awesome he was able to support her in sobriety. Having a sober home makes the tradition from drinking to not drinking easier, because then you aren’t surrounded by it. I imagine being sober while celebrity is really difficult.
It’s wonderful that he gave it up, too. I know of a couple where they realized that the wife was an alcoholic in her 50s. She went to treatment, and he gave it up for her. They are in their 80s now. They are very much in love, and they have been married since she graduated college.
Wishing Jessica and Eric all the love and success in the world. They seem like nice, unpretentious people.
I’m so happy for her. He sounds like a great partner.
I don’t think it’s weird to say her kids are beautiful. The kids are adorable.
That is wonderful that her husband was able and willing to do that for Jessica – trust me not everyone is like that!! Proves he is willing to put her sobriety and needs (in this case) over his own. I know from personal experience not all people are willing to do things like this and will still drink in front of someone who is struggling with sobriety, or is trying to stay sober, and I just think that is the height of selfishness or shows signs of their own issues of addiction!
Good for Jessica in finding her happiness after a long struggle xo. And yes! Very beautiful family indeed!
I think if only 1 person gets healthy in any way, and the other resists, the couple usually break up. See this time and again (alcohol, drugs, losing weight, etc.).
So true! When I gave up alcohol my partner did too; he framed it like this, “I am not going to lose you to alcohol, which will happen if you continue to drink, nor am I going to lose you to sobriety, which will happen if I continue to drink.” So we are sober together and SO MUCH BETTER for it. We actually tried to drink one night about 6 months into sobriety and we both hated the feeling the next day and re-committed to not drinking. Having a partner to share those feelings/experiences with is incredible.
My husband quit drinking a few years ago while I did not and it was a major point of contention for us, as much as he insisted it wasn’t, and he eventually went back to it. We both quit together about a year ago and it’s been smooth sailing this time. We allowed ourselves a couple of cocktails at Christmas and same thing — we agreed it’s not worth it.
I feel so much more solid as a unit this go ’round. I wish I hadn’t listened to him when he said it would be fine the first time! It’s not that I wasn’t trying to be supportive, it was at his insistence. I think he thought it would be putting and undue burden on me to ask me to quit too.
Her son looks just like her. I never noticed that before. Good for them. They seem really solid.
He sure does! Very cute kids.
In the beginning I got K-Fed vibes from him but he turned out to be a good guy (it seems). I’m glad for her. Their marriage seems solid.
Honestly, you kind of have to if your partner is an addict? Beyond the show of solidarity, there’s an element of pragmatism – you can’t have addictive substances in a home where it can tempt the addict. My sister gave up drinking/smoking when it became clear her husband needed rehab. She stated pretty frankly that the trauma of his addiction pretty much destroyed any enjoyment drinking gave her even in a responsible social setting, as it is.
I’m glad he’s supportive of her. I remember most of us thinking he was lazy or a gold digger or something because he dropped everything when they got together, but it seems like they have a good partnership. They seem happy and healthy now together, and hopefully remain that way.
Exactly this Lucy2. Many people don’t understand unless they’ve experienced it but as an adult child of an alcoholic, being around alcohol, people imbibing, being inundated with alcohol culture, brings back many traumas for me so it is not something I find enjoyable.
In fact, I’m especially worried about the laissez faire, cavalier attitude towards alcohol and specifically damaging is the message that parents need to drink to survive raising their children.
They have glorified it until it is the social norm and NOT drinking is stigmatized.
Im certain I rarely get asked to functions anymore because I don’t drink. I’m totally nice about it when I decline the drink, but when I’m at an event I’m constantly pressured and things become awkward for the hostess.
It makes me sad. Of course, when people start sounding intoxicated I excuse myself. I just can’t be around that anymore. I guess I am a stick in the mud.
Watch the Today Show interview of Jessica with Hoda.
You can tell something isn’t right.
She is slurring her words and you can tell she just looks off.
Oh wow, you’re right.
You can watch Jessica’s interview on the TODAY show website.
are we talking about an old one or something since the book has come out ??
Other websites are suggesting that the issue for both of them was Really cocaine. But that the vice has been whitewashed for public consumption.
ouch!! Those black shoes in that last family photo!!!!
If I recall the pap photos of those two at the beginning of the relationship, they both looked messy and sort of off. So it’s a good thing they gave up whatever it was. No mention of his relationship overlap huh? I clearly remember the old gossip here about how he was still married when they hooked up.