Jessica Simpson

It's in Dallas, Texas, that Jessica Ann Simpson was born on July 10, 1980. Growing up in the small town of Richardson, her life was textbook happy. Her father Joe was a psychologist who also served as youth minister in the local Baptist church. Simpson got her start singing in her church choir. In... More

It's in Dallas, Texas, that Jessica Ann Simpson was born on July 10, 1980. Growing up in the small town of Richardson, her life was textbook happy. Her father Joe was a psychologist who also served as youth minister in the local Baptist church.

Simpson got her start singing in her church choir. In 1992, at the age of 12, she made an unsuccessful audition for “The All New Mickey Mouse Club.”   While she did make it to the finals, she choked and missed the opportunity to star with future pop stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
 
She attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas and was discovered at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label. She dropped out in her senior year to tour and promote her demo album.  She later earned her GED.

Hoping to expand her popularity in the secular market, Simpson later signed to Sony and toured in support of boy band sensations 98 Degrees. Her 1999 major-label debut, “Sweet Kisses,” launched the smash “I Wanna Love You Forever.” A second studio effort, “Irresistible,” appeared in spring 2001. Despite the MTV coverage of the album's title track, Simpson's sophomore effort didn't fare as well as her first. The following year, Simpson married her longtime boyfriend, 98 Degrees crooner Nick Lachey.  In the summer of 2003, she and Lachey's MTV-produced reality show, “Newlyweds,” captured countless moments of the couple's first year of marriage.

Simpson's third album, the much more mature “In This Skin,” appeared in July 2004. First, the single “Sweetest Sin” was a moderate chart hit, but thanks to the success of “Newlyweds,” Simpson's teetering career got a second chance.  Simpson spent the rest of 2004 and early 2005 working on the second season of “Newlyweds,” as well as on her role as Daisy Duke in “The Dukes of Hazard” movie. Late that year, she and Lachey separated.

Jessica has received a good deal of publicity in the aftermath of her marriage to Nick Lachey. Following their break-up and pending divorce, she was reportedly linked to her “Employee of the Month” co-star Dane Cook, singer John Mayer, and, from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” actor/comedian Johnny Knoxville. During the marriage, several reports of a one night stand with Bam Margera surfaced which both denied at the time. Recently Bam Margera went on Howard Stern's radio show to “admit the truth” concerning sleeping with Jessica. This indirectly reinforced the truth behind the rumor of “Jessica letting Bam have a screw” (Stardom magazine), and has tarnished Jessica's once innocent image as a virgin.

Soon after the split with Lachey, Simpson got to work on her fourth album and also started shooting the movie “Employee of the Month”. “A Public Affair” arrived in summer 2006 and was influenced by everything from '80s new wave to contemporary country.

Jessica Simpson(39)