Nick Lachey reflected on his marriage to Jessica Simpson during season three of The Ultimatum, which Netflix released on Wednesday.
The former boy band star, 51, hosts the reality TV show with his wife Vanessa Lachey, 44. However, in a new episode of the show, he looked back on his first marriage to the Take My Breath Away hitmaker, 44.
Nick and Jessica started dating after meeting at the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1998. They married in 2002 and divorced in 2005.
“I’ve also been married and divorced before, so I understand the pain and scars that come from that,” Nick – who was also eyeing his first wedding in 2022 – shared, according to E! News.
Nick’s fears were finally quelled when he met and married Vanessa in 2011.
‘What I really always wanted in my life, namely a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family. If I hadn’t continued to believe in that, I would never have realized the beautiful life I have with this woman.’
Nick Lachey, 51, reflected on the “scars” of his marriage to Jessica Simpson, 44, during season three of The Ultimatum, which Netflix released on Wednesday; seen in 2018
He hosts the reality TV show with his wife Vanessa Lachey, 44. However, in a new episode of the show, he looked back on his first marriage to the Take My Breath Away hitmaker; seen with Jessica in 2005
“Don’t let your past define your future,” Nick — who also dated Kristin Cavallari after his divorce from Jessica — added.
The couple share sons Camden, 12, and Phoenix, seven, and daughter Brooklyn, nine.
Meanwhile, Jessica has been married to former NFL star Eric Johnson since 2014.
They share daughters Maxwell, 12, and Birdie, five, and son Ace, 11.
Nick previously took a little dig at his first marriage.
In a 2022 episode of Love Is Blind season three, he said that marriage is “always better the second time around.”
Nick sat next to Vanessa during the conversation, which quickly sparked outrage among devout Love Is Blind fans online.
Many found the comment “disrespectful” and felt it was unnecessary to involve Jessica.
“Say what you want about Love is Blind Season 3, but Nick Lachey didn’t have to involve Jessica Simpson in this,” one irritated Twitter user wrote.
Nick and Jessica started dating after meeting at the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1998. They married in 2002 and divorced in 2005; seen in 2005 in Miami
“I’ve also been married and divorced before, so I understand the pain and scars that come from that,” Nick said, according to E! News; pictured in 2005
Fans got a front-row seat to the former “It” couple’s married life on the hit MTV reality series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, which ran for three seasons on MTV; the couple seen in 2003
One fan didn’t hold back, calling Nick ‘sooo f***ing weird’ for shading his short-lived marriage to Jessica.
Meanwhile, Jessica appeared to shade Nick in a 2023 interview with Rush.
After being told how fans of their former MTV reality show, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, now see Nick as the bad guy, Jessica simply said of their past perception of him as a stand-up husband, “It’s amazing what publicity can do. ‘
Nick and Jessica married in 2002 after almost three years of dating.
They didn’t sign a prenuptial agreement because Jessica believed the marriage would “never end.”
Fans got a front-row seat to the former “It” couple’s married life on the hit MTV reality series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.
The show ran for three seasons on MTV and heavily featured Jessica’s “dumb blonde” persona as she navigated the early years of her marriage to Nick.
One of the most memorable moments of the show was Jessica’s ‘Chicken Of The Sea’ riddle, in which she struggled to understand whether the canned good contained chicken or fish.
Nick’s fears about marriage were finally quelled when he met and married Vanessa in 2011
‘What I really always wanted in my life, namely a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family. If I hadn’t believed in that, I would never have realized the beautiful life I have with this woman,” he shared
The couple share sons Camden, 12, and Phoenix, seven, and daughter Brooklyn, nine
Despite the way she was portrayed, Jessica was one of Hollywood’s top talents and remains a very successful businesswoman.
The final season of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica aired in March 2005.
Nine months later, Jessica would file for divorce from Nick after less than four years of marriage. The divorce was finalized in 2006.
In her memoir Open Book, released in 2020, Jessica spoke candidly about her ex-husband and how she believed their MTV show played no role in their split.
“I don’t believe the show has torn our marriage apart,” she wrote. ‘Nick and I were very good at being together, in public and on camera.’
‘We were the best in our relationship when we sang together. I felt like we were at home in that place,” the singer explains.
“But as far as making the reality show, we just had fun with it until the end, until we started having marital problems.”
She also confessed that she was heartbroken that Nick moved on with Vanessa so quickly after their divorce.
Meanwhile, Jessica has been married to former NFL star Eric Johnson since 2014. They share daughters Maxwell, 12, and Birdie, five, and son Ace, 11; seen in 2018
‘So Nick, you’re already with someone else? It seems you have forgotten the love with which you spoke to me… I am incredibly sad. Alone in the dark, without anyone to call mine,” she writes in Open Book.
In late 2021, Nick revealed during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live that he had not read Jessica’s memoir and had no plans to do so.
‘Of course I knew the book was coming out, but I lived the book. You know what I mean,” he told host Cohen.
“I know what the truth is, so I don’t have to read it, or read someone’s version of it in a story I know I’ve lived. No, I never read it.’