Not here for the hate. Vanessa Lachey clapped back at several Twitter users who criticized her reaction to a question about her husband Nick Lachey’s ex-wife, Jessica Simpson.
The former TRL host, 39, made headlines earlier this week after Hoda Kotb asked her and Nick, 46, about allegedly sending Simpson, 39, a gift when she had one of her three kids with husband Eric Johnson.
“I feel bad. I’m sorry, but you said somebody sent her … It wasn’t us,” Vanessa quipped on Today With Hoda & Jenna on Monday, February 3. “I don’t know her address. But thank you, whoever sent it from us!”
In the days following the awkward moment, Vanessa took to Twitter to explain herself, replying to 13 different social media users about the situation.
When one person accused her of throwing shade, the BH90210 actress replied, “Sorry you think that, just didn’t want to take credit for something we didn’t do. That’s all. Seems weird to ignore sending a big beautiful gift basket and taking that credit. Either way… hope you have a Beautiful day! ❤️”
In a second tweet, Vanessa wrote that the couple “just wanted to clear the air.”
“Trust me!” she wrote. “If I sent something, I’d take credit!”
In a third post, Vanessa threw shade at Kotb: “You make sure you do your research and state facts and ask appropriate questions as the host… don’t you think. The statement wasn’t true, so I was simply clearing that up. But definitely a beautiful sentiment if it was.”
A fourth social media user accused Vanessa of being “petty.”
“Well shucks! Just lost a fan!” she fired back. “Hope you see the truth in this. Asked about something that wasn’t true. My heart had to make sure I was honest. Would you just let it go? 😉 Always be true to you! ❤️”
Reports surfaced in 2012 that Nick and Vanessa, who wed the year prior, sent Simpson and Johnson cookies after their eldest daughter, Maxwell, was born. The “Sweetest Sin” singer also shares son Ace, 6, and daughter Birdie, 11 months, with the former NFL player, whom she married in 2014. (Nick and Vanessa have three kids of their own: son Camden, 7, daughter Brooklyn, 5, and son Phoenix, 3.)
Kotb brought up the story on Today because she recently interviewed Simpson for her new memoir, Open Book, in which she documented her marriage and subsequent divorce from Lachey. (The former boy bander told Us Weekly exclusively that he hasn’t read the tell-all.)
“Nick was meant to be my husband,” Simpson wrote about their 2002 nuptials. “No one else was supposed to have my virginity.”
The former spouses called it quits in November 2005, finalizing their divorce in 2006. “Divorce is messy,” she wrote. “I wish we were the kind of people who could divorce and stay friends. We weren’t, and I regret that my actions hurt him.”
