Jessica Simpson Says She Took Diet Pills for 20 Years After Music Exec Allegedly Told Her to Lose 15 Pounds
Jessica Simpson is opening up about her struggles with body image and weight.
The 39-year-old gets candid in her new memoir, Open Book, about the advice she says she received early in her career that led her to take diet pills for 20 years.
According to Simpson, it started at the age of 17 when she met with Tommy Mottola at Columbia Records. The legendary producer liked her voice, but the singer claims that Mottola told her, “You gotta lose 15 pounds.”
“That’s what it will take to be Jessica Simpson,” Simpson recalls Mottola allegedly saying in her memoir.
Simpson says she weighed 118 pounds at the time but was down to 103 pounds when her second album was released.
“I immediately went on an extremely strict diet, and started taking diet pills, which I would do for the next 20 years,” she writes (via People magazine).
Simpson notes that her body image issues were so severe that she would hear voices when she was alone at night telling her, "Do more sit-ups, fat a**."
The fashion designer, who claims she has been sober since 2017, has also worked to eliminate alcohol and drugs from her life.
"I am all about helping others feel their best," Simpson told ET while pregnant in 2018. "I know those down days."
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