On November 1, 2017, Jessica Simpson, 41, made the life-changing decision to get sober. As she shared in her memoir Open Book, the singer and entrepreneur removed alcohol from her life altogether after she was too intoxicated on Halloween 2017 to help her children dress in their costumes. She woke up hungover the next morning and vowed to stop drinking — a moment that Jessica revisited on Monday (Nov. 1) to mark 4 years of sobriety.
To celebrate her milestone, Jessica shared a photo to social media of herself from that morning that she woke up hungover. “This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself,” Jessica began her caption, before she reflected on her decision to go sober that very day.
“I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore,” she wrote. “I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity. Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and quite honestly I was exhausted. I wanted to feel the pain so I could carry it like a badge of honor. I wanted to live as a leader does and break cycles to advance forward- never looking back with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make for the rest of my time here within this beautiful world.”
The “With You” songstress said she “can’t believe” it’s been four years since she’s drank alcohol. “It feels like maybe 2. I think that is a good thing. Ha,” she added. “There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic. The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage. The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was. I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do. I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad. I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free.”
Jessica’s been very open about her journey to sobriety in the past years. The actress, who has three kids with husband Eric Johnson, said in her 2020 memoir that she “hit rock bottom” with her alcohol abuse on Halloween 2017. She hasn’t had a drink since that night. “Giving up the alcohol was easy,” she wrote in Open Book. “I was mad at the bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb.”
Jessica had a lot of support when she got sober. Her friends and family, including husband Eric and her parents, rallied around her. “When I finally said I needed help, it was like that little girl that found her calling again in life,” she said in her memoir. “I found direction and that was to walk straight ahead with no fear.”