Jessica Simpson’s Love Life: Nick Lachey, John Mayer, Eric Johnson and More

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Jessica Simpson’s Love Life: Nick Lachey, John Mayer, Eric Johnson and More

Love can take your breath away! Jessica Simpson's relationships have made headlines through the years, from brief flings, marriages and more.

The “Take My Breath Away” songstress notably began dating Nick Lachey in 1999. After an on-and-off romance, they went on to tie the knot in October 2002 and subsequently landed their own Newlyweds reality TV show. After nearly four years of marriage, they ultimately called it quits.

“It breaks my heart that I couldn’t make Jessica happy. I wanted to be everything to my wife,” Lachey — who later married Vanessa Lachey (née Minnillo) in July 2011 — recalled to Rolling Stone in April 2006. “I wanted her to look at me with love in her eyes, the way she did at the beginning, and have her feel like I was the most wonderful, awe-inspiring man on the planet. And when that stopped, it was the worst feeling in the world.”

The Texas native has been equally candid about their short-lived marriage, even calling Nick her “first love” in her Open Book memoir.

“Nick loved the fact I was so strong in my faith and that I had this wide-eyed innocent approach to life. When he proposed in 2002, I said yes,” Simpson wrote in the book, which was published in 2020. “We were young and pioneering our way through reality television, always mic’ed and always on. We worked and we were great at it but when it came time to being alone, we weren’t great at it anymore.”

She added at the time: “I was 22, and I had just pledged my life and destiny of this man. And I don’t regret it. Nick was meant to be my husband. No one else was supposed to have my virginity.”

After their divorce was finalized in 2006,  the Employee of the Month actress dated the likes of John Mayer, Tony Romo and Billy Corgan. Simpson went on to meet former football player Eric Johnson in 2010, who proposed six months later that November.

Simpson and the NFL alum — who share daughters Maxwell, born in 2012, and Birdie, born in 2019, and son Ace, born in 2013 — wed in July 2014.

“I don’t feel like our marriage has been long, but I feel like I’ve loved Eric my whole life,” Simpson exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2022. “I guess in the moment I met him, it felt like a marriage. ... Eric and I set intentions, and we’re very good at manifesting our dreams. We’re very good at creating a safe environment for each other to be ourselves."

She continued: "We rarely fight. If we do, it’s more conversational, and it’s not like, ‘He’s right or she’s right.’ It’s not about winning.”

Scroll below to see Simpson’s complete dating history through the years:

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Jensen Ackles

The singer dated the Supernatural actor in the late '90s around the time she became a household name with her debut album Sweet Kisses. It was rumored that Simpson was speaking of the hunk when she later recalled her "first heartbreak" on an episode of MTV's Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica years later.

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Nick Lachey

The twosome began dating in 1999, married in October 2002 and starred in three seasons of MTV's Newlyweds. But after divorcing Lachey in June 2006, Simpson had only fond memories of the experience. "I believe it did not affect our marriage. Because we enjoyed watching those episodes, and that will always be a time I cherish," she told Vanity Fair in 2009.

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Adam Levine

Simpson was rumored to have hooked up with the Maroon 5 frontman in 2004, while she was still married to Lachey. That January, the two reportedly spent the night at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont together. Simpson was seen wearing his T-shirt as pal CaCee Cobb picked her up the next morning.

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Bam Margera

The famous prankster said he and Simpson did the deed during a chat on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show in September 2006. "We were just drinking margaritas and stuff, and you know, from there," he said. "It was when her parents were away and Nick was away," he claimed. "It's not a secret."

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Johnny Knoxville

Simpson was accused of cheating on Lachey with her Dukes of Hazzard costar in 2006.

While both Simpson and Knoxville denied allegations that they had an inappropriate relationship at the time, the singer detailed their alleged emotional affair in her 2020 memoir, Open Book.

“I felt a force drawing us together,” Simpson wrote about Knoxville, who was married to his first wife, Melanie Lynn Clapp, at the time. “To me, an emotional affair was worse than a physical one. It’s funny, I know, because I had placed such an emphasis on sex by not having it before marriage. After I actually had sex, I understood that the emotional part was what mattered. And Johnny and I had that.”

She added that the twosome wrote “love letters” to each other. “It’s like Johnny and I were prison pen pals, two people who wanted too much to be with each other but were kept apart — by bars, by our stars, by our respective spouses,” Simpson wrote.

Knoxville has yet to publicly react to Simpson’s book claims. 

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John Mayer

When she began dating the "Your Body Is a Wonderland" crooner in 2006, Simpson famously darkened her locks before calling it quits in May 2007. In 2010, Mayer opened up about their relationship in a Playboy interview saying that being with Simpson in the bedroom was like "sexual napalm" and that she was "like crack cocaine to me."

In her 2020 memoir, Open Book, Simpson slammed Mayer.

“Again and again, he told me that he was obsessed with me, sexually and emotionally,” she wrote, noting that he would break up with her because her “light would start to dim.” 

She wrote: “John loved me when I was shining and he drew inspiration from that light. When he tapped me dry, he looked at me like I was withholding something from him.” 

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Tony Romo

The NFL Dallas Cowboys player ended their relationship the night before Simpson's 29th birthday in July 2009 after nearly two years of dating. "It's been a long time coming," a pal of Romo's told Us. "They go from one fight right into another, without a second break," another added. "It's always something with Jessica."

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Billy Corgan

Though the two were first spotted together in NYC in December 2009, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman played coy about the nature of their brief courtship. "The stuff that I've seen doesn't have any bearing to the reality that I'm in," he said to the Chicago Tribune in 2010. "It's like being in a cartoon. It has nothing to do with what's really going on or how I feel."

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Jeremy Renner

Their short-lived spring fling came to an abrupt halt when the Hurt Locker star simply stopped calling the singer in 2010. Afterward, a source said a confused Simpson "showed up at his house one day" — and came to face-to-face with another woman! He was a "dirtbag," an insider told Us.

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Eric Johnson

Simpson and the former NFL player began dating in May 2010 and got engaged six months later, ultimately tying the knot in July 2014. The couple welcomed daughter Maxwell in May 2012, son Ace in June 2013 and daughter Birdie in March 2019.

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Justin Timberlake

Simpson revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in January 2020 that the “Suit & Tie” singer once kissed her on a bet from former All-New Micky Mouse Club costar Ryan Gosling. “After [my] divorce and he was out of a relationship, he was, like, over at my house, and we shared a nostalgic kiss,” she recalled. “Apparently, him and Ryan Gosling had a bet on who would kiss me first when they were 12 years old, so he texted Ryan and said he won the bet. And I was like, ‘Oh, OK, um, so we don’t kiss again? That’s done.’”