Truth behind Jessica Simpson’s ‘trainwreck’ Ellen interview

Three years later, the star responsible for one of Ellen’s most disastrous celebrity interviews explains what was really going on.

When Jessica Simpson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017, fans grew concerned about her bizarre behaviour and questioned if she was drunk.

The now-sober mother of three admits she cannot rewatch the footage of the disastrous interview because it serves as a reminder of her alcohol abuse.

Simpson, 39, is amping up for the release of her juicy new celeb memoir, Open Book . The book features the most intimate moments in her life including sexual abuse she experienced as a child, developing a drinking problem, turning to diet pills at a young age and her former marriage to Nick Lachey.

On Wednesday, the singer appeared on US talk show Today to talk about her tell-all with Hoda Kotb, where the two ended up discussing Simpson’s interview with DeGeneres in May 2017, at the height of her drinking problem.

THAT INFAMOUS INTERVIEW

Simpson's 2017 Ellen interview was a trainwreck.

Simpson’s greeting set the tone for the five-minute interview, as she noted she’d been pregnant during her past two appearances on the show: “Very exciting! I’m not pregnant on your show. Oh gosh, no. We have an IUD, it’s … nothing gonna get in that uterus.”

During the interview, Simpson struggled to remember how long she had been married to her husband, Eric Johnson: “Seven years now. Well, coming on seven years. Well actually, seven. It’s a long time. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a seven-year relationship. Other than with a woman. Well, not that kind.”

Slurring her words, she claimed she had written “38” new songs, which she then corrected to “36” songs, and then “39.”

From there, she launched into a story about her kids’ recent mermaid-themed birthday party — complete with children’s entertainers swimming in the backyard pool dressed as mermaids.

“Silicone tails,” she announced out of nowhere. “They had … manhandlers. It’s not called manhandlers … No … they had to be carried if they had to pee … cos they can’t pee on my children in the pool. They pick ‘em up, and carry ‘em … It’s a, it’s a business.”

By midway through the interview, a clearly exasperated Ellen had resorted to staring directly into the camera:

Ellen DeGeneres couldn't hide her frustration.

“I WASN’T PRESENT”

“I knew that I wasn’t present,” Simpson told Kotb, three years on from that infamous interview. “I knew that something was off.”

Simpson admitted she “can’t even watch” the footage now.

“It was a weak moment for me and I wasn’t in the right place,” Simpson said. “I had started a spiral and I couldn’t catch up with myself. That was when I was with alcohol.”

Simpson admits in the book that she was sexually abused by a young female family friend beginning at age 6, which spurred her past substance abuse. In her book, she reportedly writes that she was “killing” herself with alcohol and pills.

Her “aha” moment came later in 2017, when she was too “zoned out” on Halloween to help her kids get ready for a party.

Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty

“I was just dazed and confused and I just wanted to go to sleep,” Simpson told Kotb about the memory. “I didn’t show up for my family. I took the (Halloween) picture and I made the world think I showed up.”

After that day, Simpson said she turned to friends for help and ditched drinking.

“Giving up the alcohol was easy. I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb,” she writes in the book.

Simpson and Johnson have been married since 2014 and share daughters Maxwell, 7, Birdie, 10 months, and son, Ace, 6.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission.