Key Takeaways
- Nick Lachey said his divorce from Jessica Simpson gave him a “leg up” by showing him what he truly wanted before he married Vanessa Lachey.
- The Love Is Blind host shared the advice with a contestant nervous about dating after a divorce, while Vanessa added, “We all have messy pasts.”
- Lachey and Simpson turned their marriage into an early reality-TV phenomenon with MTV’s Newlyweds before separating in 2005 and finalizing their divorce in 2006.
Nick Lachey spent three seasons letting MTV document his marriage to Jessica Simpson. More than 20 years later, he's telling contestants on Love Is Blind that the relationship's spectacularly public ending actually gave him an advantage in life.
During the Season 11 premiere of the Netflix dating series on Wednesday, October 14, the 98 Degrees singer made a rare reference to his first marriage while reassuring a contestant who was nervous about dating after divorce.
Lachey's argument? A failed marriage doesn't necessarily put you at a disadvantage in your next relationship.
"Well, as some of you may know, I was previously married before I met my incredible wife," Lachey said, per USA Today, referring to Simpson without naming her. "I would make the very unique argument that it gives you a leg up because you know from that experience what it is you truly want.”
Vanessa Lachey, who co-hosts the series with her husband, chimed in with her own assessment: "We all have messy pasts—all of us."
For anyone who remembers the original Newlyweds era, Nick's comments carry considerably more history than the average reality TV relationship advice. Long before Love Is Blind turned marriage into a Netflix experiment, Lachey and Simpson were helping define celebrity reality television on MTV. Their series, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, premiered in 2003 and ran for three seasons, transforming their marriage into a pop culture phenomenon.
The show made Simpson's personality a fixture of early-2000s television while giving audiences a front-row seat to a marriage that would eventually unravel under intense public scrutiny.
The couple married in October 2002, announced their separation in 2005, and finalized their divorce in June 2006, with Simpson citing irreconcilable differences.
Lachey subsequently released "What's Left of Me," the breakup-era single that became one of his biggest solo hits. Its music video featured Vanessa Minnillo, the former MTV personality he would eventually marry in 2011.
Meanwhile, Lachey's relationship with his own past has become a recurring subject in his television career. During a 2024 episode of The Ultimatum, he acknowledged that divorce had left emotional scars, telling a contestant he understood the pain of a marriage ending.
More recently, Lachey revisited another complicated chapter of his life in Investigation Discovery's Boy Band Confidential. He claimed Motown executives wanted 98 Degrees to become the "white Jodeci," a push that left him questioning his identity.
Simpson, meanwhile, has been candid about their marriage on her own terms. In her 2020 memoir Open Book, she said she wanted the public to see their relationship as a fairy tale, even as their private reality grew increasingly complicated.
