Nick Lachey said his first marriage, to Jessica Simpson, ultimately helped him find lasting happiness with his current wife, Vanessa Lachey, making the comment during the Season 11 premiere of Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” on Oct. 14.
Lachey, 52, and Simpson, 46, were married from October 2002 to June 2006 and famously starred together on MTV’s “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.” During the new season’s premiere, Lachey and his wife Vanessa, who co-host the show, were in the women’s lounge speaking with contestant Erika Ellis, who told them, “I’ve been married before, and I’ve had a tough time on dates in the past knowing when the right time to share that is.”
Lachey responded by describing his own prior marriage. “Well, as some of you may know, I was previously married before I met my incredible wife,” he said. “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, 45, told Ellis that a previous marriage was nothing to be ashamed of. “We all have messy pasts, all of us,” she said.
Lachey has spoken before about the lingering effects of his divorce from Simpson. On Season 3 of Netflix’s “The Ultimatum,” he told a contestant discussing fears about marriage, “I, too, was previously married, divorced, so I understand the hurt, the scars that exist from that. Don’t let your past define your future. What I truly always wanted in my life, which was to have a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family — if I hadn’t retained my belief in that, I wouldn’t have ever realized the beautiful life I have with this woman.”
The relationship between Lachey and Simpson drew fresh attention this year after the two ran into each other on a flight from Los Angeles to Kauai, Hawaii, in March. Lachey discussed the encounter on “Watch What Happens Live” in May, calling it “strangely OK” despite not having seen Simpson in 20 years. “We hadn’t seen each other in those 20 years, then spent six and a half hours on a flight to Hawaii together,” he said, adding that the two were simply “in the same vicinity” and that “everyone was very, very cordial” and “very respectful.”
Lachey also said at the time that Simpson’s three children with her estranged husband, Eric Johnson — Maxwell, 14, Ace, 13, and Birdie, 7 — appeared to be seated in a “separate class of service” from Simpson during the flight, suggesting the children flew economy while she sat in first class. Simpson later defended the seating arrangement, explaining that her mother, Tina Ann Drew, had purchased the tickets.
Simpson announced her split from Johnson in January 2025 after 10 years of marriage and has since gone public with a new boyfriend, musician Thomas Eisenhood. Lachey married Vanessa in 2011, and the couple share three children: son Camden, 14, daughter Brooklyn, 11, and son Phoenix, 9.
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