Jessica Simpson’s Lost 2003 Interview Reveals What She Really Thought About Nick Lachey and ‘Newlyweds’

In late spring 2003, as the entertainment editor at CosmoGIRL!, I argued against putting Jessica Simpson on our September cover.

Jessica first graced the March 2001 issue of CosmoGIRL! with this cringy cover line: The Real Jessica Simpson: She’s No Prude. It was a not-so-subtle reference to how Jessica differentiated herself from the other blonde pop stars (Britney, Christina, Mandy and so on) of the day. Though Jessica was dating 98 Degrees’ heartthrob Nick Lachey, she was open about saving herself for marriage. 

It sounds wild in hindsight, but at the time, Jessica was not a sure bet. For context, this was spring 2003. While Jessica and Nick had recently tied the knot, her second album, Irresistible, had underperformed. Boy bands were cooling off, dimming the star power of her new husband. Of course, there was intrigue over Nick and Jessica as a “celebrity couple” and we were told they had filmed an MTV reality series. But the premise sounded like an uphill battle: a struggling pop singer cast as a clueless housewife, debuting decades before anyone coined the term “tradwife.”

All those doubts aside, we genuinely lucked out. Their now iconic reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, became an inescapable cultural juggernaut and we never could have predicted that Jessica Simpson would be the blonde pop star to make the world say, “Britney who?” 

For 23 years, the full transcript of our 40-minute phone interview has lived in my archive. Looking back at the raw, unedited tape today, what struck me most was how much pressure Jessica was already carrying. The most shocking revelation? Record executives originally planned to pit the newlyweds directly against each other by releasing their respective new albums on the exact same day. Jessica’s third album In This Skin was slated to drop on August 19th, 2003 (complete with songs she’d written herself, a first in her career) along with Nick’s solo debut, Soulo.

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Hearing a 23-year-old artist openly admit she’d happily sacrifice her own shot at the top of the charts just to protect her husband’s ego says everything about the impossible expectations placed on women in that era. Ultimately, cooler heads intervened. Nick’s album was quietly delayed to November, while Jessica’s In This Skin dropped in August, going multi-platinum and debuting at number 10 (Nick’s later debuted at number 51). The tension Jessica so cheerily brushed off was already forming cracks beneath the surface.

Here is the exact moment she defended that high-stakes setup, completely unaware of the emotional trap it laid.

CosmoGIRL!: Whose decision was it to put you guys up against each other with album releases?

Jessica Simpson: Um, well we both have this show, and it’s just more publicity, more press. I think that it also makes a good statement . . .that we’re not in competition. That if he’s number one, and I’m number two, it will be the best thing in the world. I mean, what husband and wife were ever number one and number two together? What’s mine is his, and what’s his is mine. I think it’s a really cool statement to make. So, it’s kind of our idea, I don’t know…. It’s a promotional thing.

CG: Is there any friendly competition over who’s going to come in at number one?

JS: Oh, we might joke around with each other, but I mean, this is Nick’s first time out, you know? We’re just…. he’s so nervous because it’s his first solo thing and none of his music is familiar, he’s not with the other guys [from 98 Degrees]. So, he’s really nervous. I would love for him to beat me out because I know how much it would mean for him to be number one.

Related: Jessica Simpson Gets Emotional Onstage Discussing Her Alcoholism: ‘Pray I Can Do This Without Crying’

‘There Are No Rumors Because Everything Is Reality’

Seven months into marriage, Jessica was entirely sincere about welcoming MTV cameras into her home, convinced total transparency would protect her relationship rather than destroy it. Here’s how she spun it.

CG: Is it hard, especially being newlyweds, and having the cameras around you all the time? Are you at all regretting not having a little bit of privacy so soon in your marriage?

JS: You see us as real people which I think is nice. There are no rumors because everything is reality. And you know what? Nick and l are just so easy going. We’re both really laid back people who don’t really care what people think of us. If anything, it’s an incredible opportunity. The power of MTV right now is unbelievable, especially with Punk’d and all these shows, all these reality shows. I mean there’s The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, people picking and choosing the person to marry. But there’s never been a reality show of the actual marriage and what all goes into it. And especially a celebrity marriage. I mean, people buy magazines every month, every week, to see what bag a celebrity is carrying or what they’re wearing. But, this is our life. You’re going to see everything. From fighting, to making up, to us in the studio, how we deal with being apart, how we make it work.

Early Echoes of Toxic Diet Culture

Long before the tabloid frenzy over her weight and years before her Daisy Duke era, Jessica was already navigating the suffocating demands of Hollywood’s physical standards. This excerpt shows how much she was already thinking about the public perception of her body.

CG: You don’t feel pressured to be thin, or always look great when you’re on camera?

JS: I mean you always have that pressure because you’re on film. You know, you’re being taped every day. But I love to work out, I love to do yoga, and you know, it’s just a part of my life. To say I don’t worry about it or think about it is a lie. Because I do. And to say that I try not to eat pizza and hamburgers, you know, or say that I EAT that and stay thin? That’s a lie too. Because I know a lot of people say that, especially models, are like “oh yeah, I eat everything.” Okay, right. Sure. Uh huh. It’s like no. I mean, you gotta watch what you eat, and you have to work out if you want to look great. And of course, I want to look great for myself. Not necessarily just for the press or whatever – not that I want to look better than anybody else. I just want to feel good in my clothes.

CG: Absolutely. What do you think gives you your confidence?

JS: For me, if I have a good day working out, eating healthy, and just spending time with my husband, I feel confident. You know, confidence comes from being on stage and getting applause. It comes from a compliment on my dress. Always accept compliments, and always listen to your compliments, because people aren’t just saying them to say them. It was in their mind to say it, and that’s why they said it, so believe it. Most people are just like “oh no….thanks anyways.” But I really believe in compliments. If somebody tells me, “Oh, you look so thin today— it makes my day!”

Life as Married Woman

Jessica knew Nick was “the one” the moment she met him but admitted he wouldn’t propose until she was more of a “woman” and had to “grow up.”  I did ask Jessica about waiting for marriage to have sex as a way to offer some “very “grown up” advice to our young readers (which she did). But it’s what she said about her relationship with her parents even after her wedding that makes me wonder if she was ready to be a wife, or at the least the wife that Nick wanted her to be.  

CG: Your decision to wait to be with Nick until you were married was very public. We have so many readers that write to us and say that they want to wait, they want to save themselves, but they’re boyfriends just don’t understand. Not everyone is as lucky to have somebody that is understanding as Nick so what is your advice to them?

JS: My advice is there ARE the guys out there that will understand. They’re very rare. But it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. And Nick wishes he would have done the same. Because when you find the love that we have, it’s like, you want to be able to share this one thing, with that one person. And I can’t imagine being that intimate with anybody else BUT him. I just find that gross just because he’s IT for me. And I knew that the moment I met him.

CG: What is your relationship with your parents now that you’re married? Do they treat you more like an adult? Do they expect more from you?

JS: It’s not really different. You know, my parents are my parents, I’ll always be their little girl. I still have my mom pick out my outfits, and my dad still handles all my business, and gives me advice, and nothing’s really changed other than the fact that they’ve accepted Nick as family. And we have a new family with his family. Nothing’s really changed, it’s just our family has expanded.

Why I’m Sharing This Now

None of this ran the way I wrote it in 2026. Back in 2003,  CosmoGIRL! was covering a pop star’s happy marriage and a hit reality show, not looking into a crystal ball, trying to guess what would happen and what she’d say about it two decades later. But that’s exactly what makes an unedited transcript like this worth revisiting. Jessica told the truth as she understood it in June 2003. She just didn’t know yet how much of it would change, or how candidly she’d eventually tell the rest of the story herself. Here’s the original cover story:

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