Jessica Simpson reveals childhood sexual abuse - BBC News
The singer reveals in her new book how a childhood incident led to a reliance on drugs and alcohol.
Jessica Simpson has appeared in films including The Dukes Of Hazzard and Employee Of The Month

US singer Jessica Simpson has revealed how being sexually assaulted as a child led to a reliance on drugs and alcohol.

The 39-year-old had top 10 UK chart hits in the noughties with I Wanna Love You Forever, These Boots Are Made For Walkin' and With You.

In an excerpt of her new memoir Open Book, published in People magazine, she admitted to self-medicating for years to deal with the "trauma".

"I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills," she said.

Simpson quit drinking alcohol in November 2017 when she realised it was "making things worse".

"Giving up the alcohol was easy," she went on. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb."

The abuse she suffered began when she was six years old when she shared a bed with the daughter of a family friend.

"It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable," she wrote.

"I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong."

This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jessica Simpson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Six years later she plucked up the courage to tell her parents during a car journey. Her mother reacted by slapping her father's arm and yelling: "I told you something was happening."

"Dad kept his eye on the road and said nothing," wrote Simpson.

"We never stayed at my parents' friends' house again but we also didn't talk about what I had said".

Simpson found fame as a teenage pop star in the late 1990s before starring in MTV reality series Newlyweds: Nick And Jessica alongside her former husband Nick Lachey.

She's now married to former American football player Eric Johnson, with whom she has three children.

The star, who used therapy to allow herself to finally "feel the traumas" she'd been through said she'd been on "a long hard deep emotional journey".

Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
• None One in five adults 'experienced abuse as children'