Jessica Simpson: I Was Sexually Abused as a Child

Jessica Simpson bares all in a new memoir out next month, revealing substance abuse that nearly killed her, as well as sexual abuse as a child that she's never before talked about publicly. The abuse at the hands of a family friend's daughter started at age 6, she writes, and though her parents believed her when she told them about it years later, it was never discussed again. The pain and trauma ultimately led to the substance abuse, even as her fame skyrocketed. "I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills," she writes in an excerpt from Open Book released by People.

It was after a Halloween party at her home in 2017 that she says she hit rock bottom. "I need to stop. Something's got to stop," she says she told her friends. "And if it's the alcohol that's doing this, and making things worse, then I quit." She got sober in November 2017 and hasn't consumed alcohol since. "It's been a long hard deep emotional journey, one that I've come through the other side with pure happiness and fulfillment and acceptance of myself," she says. "I've used my pain and turned it into something that can be beautiful and hopefully inspiring to people." Along with the memoir, she's releasing six new songs telling her story. (More Jessica Simpson stories.)