Jessica Simpson published a new short story on Wednesday that includes a shocking experience from her past. In Movie Star, Simpson revealed that a “massive movie star” once tried to seduce her, even though he was not single at the time. The story, written on Amazon Original Stories, is now available.
In an excerpt from the story published by PEOPLE, Simpson recalled how this incident happened in early September 2001, after she had spent a summer apart from her first real boyfriend, Nick Lachey. She attended a red carpet party when a man only identified as “Movie Star” walked up to her. Her bodyguard introduced her, but Movie Star said he was already aware of Simpson, who was 21 at the time. The bodyguard was also friends with Movie Star.
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“As our mutual friend, my bodyguard talked, this megastar, who I grew up thinking was so hot, eyeballed me up and down,” Simpson wrote. “Like he was undressing me with his eyes, which was fine because I had plenty of reasons to ditch that outfit and change.” When Movie Star began small talk, he “leaned in,” and Simpson began realizing, “Oh, this is what it’s like to be hit on.” The man put his hand on her hip and leaned in to begin talking softly to her.
“I felt a funny feeling,” Simpson wrote. “I watched his lips move, but the rest of the world was in a dreamy focus. I was a big reader to make up for dropping out of high school, so I had read enough of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters to know what was happening. This wasn’t love, but it was something dreamy. This is what they talk about when they talk about swooning, I thought. This is one of those swoon moments.” Simpson said she made “some excuse” and escaped Movie Star. “I wish I could say I was playing it cool,” Simpson wrote. “I later found out this was seen as ‘playing hard to get.’”
She ended up getting Movie Star’s phone number, never called him, ran into him later and the two lost touch once she and Lachey got back together and married. However, they divorced in 2006 and a producer later told her, “I have somebody who’s been after you forever, and you don’t even know it,” connecting her with Movie Star.
Simpson wrote that they met up at the Beverly Hills Hotel while he got ready for an awards show and shared their first kiss. “He texted me throughout the awards show,” she wrote. “The event was so huge that it made me feel special that every beautiful woman in Hollywood was there and he wanted me.” But it was too good to be true. “In fact, there was one other beautiful woman in his life: his girlfriend,” Simpson wrote. “Shortly after, I saw a photo of Movie Star on a red carpet with her. I was never ever in a million years going to be the other woman.”
She claims that he continued to pursue her, even inviting her to travel to see him while he was filming. They had to take separate cars to the hotel where they had rooms on different floors and she was advised to use the fire escape to get to his room. She said she eventually realized that he was attempting to “hide me from his chick.”
Simpson says they did not have sex and that she ended things on her own terms, but did get something to remember him by. “I needed a trophy for this achievement, so I Tok the pillowcase he slept on,” she wrote. “I didn’t care if it was creepy or if he had to pay for it… and it would send the message: this was fun, but now I have a memory of you.”
After the story was published, Simpson told PEOPLE she thought she would never share it. “The whole period was very surreal,” she said of her early days in Hollywood. “There were times I had a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong! But a lot of the time it felt isolated because I am someone who likes to deeply connect with people and I didn’t know who was trustworthy and who was not.”
The incident taught Simpson that you cannot always take people at their word, no matter how persuasive they are. That may seem obvious, “but it really isn’t when you are dealing with someone who sells it so well.” Simpson also learned not to betray herself and diminish her self-worth. That feels “so much better than immediate gratification if it means living a lie. She also learned that Hollywood has a different definition of monogamy.
Simpson, 42, was previously married to Nick Lachey from 2002 to 2006. She is now married to retired NFL player Eric Johnson, with whom she has three children, Maxwell, 10, Ace, 9, and Birdie, 3. Today, she is a successful clothing designer and best-selling author, but she continues to record music. As for Movie Star, Simpson would only say that he is “still” a movie star.
“I have learned that self-love is one of the keys to really loving someone else and that a true love will never make you question yourself or what’s real,” she told PEOPLE. “Thanks to my amazing soulmate and husband, I am able to love passionately and without fear of being hurt.”
How to read Jessica Simpson’s latest short story on Amazon
Get access to all the juicy details in Simpson’s latest short story, “Movie Star: They Always Say They’re Single.” It’s available for free if you’re a member of Kindle Unlimited. The first 30 days are free, and then it’s $10 a month. You can also purchase it for $2 without a subscription.
Try Kindle Unlimited free for 30 days and read “Movie Star: They Always Say They’re Single”
Prefer audio books? No problem. Amazon is also offering a 30-day free trial for Audible, their audiobook platform. You get the first month free, and then it’s $15 a month after that.
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