'I had to ask my mum for money not too long ago.' What Jessica Simpson's life looks like now.

Jessica Simpson is a name everybody knows: whether it's from her music career, tabloid front pages, the successful fashion brand that shares it, or Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, a major blueprint for reality TV as we know it now.

But it took a while for Simpson, the 42-year-old musician, actor and designer who embodies the name, to realise its true value.

In 2015, licensing company Sequential Brands acquired a majority stake in Simpson's brand, The Jessica Simpson Collection, for US$117 million. 

She started the brand in 2005 as a small collaboration, but by 2015 it had earned a billion dollars in sales.

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In 2021, Simpson bought back her namesake brand US$65 million — against the advice of her business manager and with financial support from her family and two additional lenders — after Sequential declared bankruptcy.

"I talked to my mum in-depth about it and I was like, 'I think it’s time for us to do this on our own'," Simpson told Bustle in a new interview,

"We either sink with the ship, or we jump and hope to find a lifesaver. And really that lifesaver was ourselves."

Simpson liquidated her stock portfolio and put her house up as collateral to finance the deal, so it's been a financial change of pace for the star, who has been making and spending her own money since she was 14. 

"I did have to ask my mother for money not too long ago," she said.

"Honestly, she did reach out to me to borrow money. And I said to her, 'Yeah, let's talk about it.' I'm her mum first, obviously," her mother Tina Simpson confirmed.

"In buying the brand back, I told her, if you're sure you want to do this, you’re just going to have to tighten up your belt a little bit. You're going to have to not live not quite as extravagantly. Because I am on a path to pay this off. I don't want to keep the loan on the brand. Then we own it out 100 per cent. It's like paying off your house."

They closed the loan in 2022 and now, Simpson's name is hers.

Image: Getty.

It couldn't come at a better time.

Simpson was part of the early 2000s musical cohort that included Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, which came with its own well-documented challenges: namely tabloid and paparazzi culture, and a public opinion that was very much not on their side.

In 2003, she starred alongside then-husband Nick Lachey in Newlyweds, which is still best remembered by just one moment. "Is Chicken of the Sea tuna or chicken?" Simpson famously asked, making her an enduring pop culture punchline.

In the past few years, especially as the public reassesses its treatment of other 2000s stars like Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, Simpson has benefited from a resurgence.

On TikTok, kids are watching clips of Newlyweds for the first time – and there's a common takeaway: maybe Lachey wasn't the patient, honourable saint of a husband who deserved praise for putting up with his ditzy wife after all.

She now re-watches clips of the show with her kids; daughters Maxwell, 11, and Birdie Mae, 4, and son Ace, 10, and finds comfort in knowing she is who she is.

In a way, Newlyweds defines all of the business success she has had since.

"What gave me control was people seeing me vulnerable on Newlyweds. My power is in my vulnerability," she said. "That's me."

These days, Simpson and her husband, retired NFL star Eric Johnson, are considering a move to Nashville so Simpson can reboot her music career.

She is also sober, after detailing in her memoir Open Book her experiences with child sexual abuse, addiction and alcoholism.

Feature image: Instagram/@jessicasimpson