Open book cartoon

Jessica simpson biography book From struggling with body image issues and that chili cook-off to toxic relationships, Simpson really is an Open Book. At 17, the singer already had a complicated relationship with her body. People in her church community commented that her curves would make men "lustful" even when fully clothed , and record executives wanted her to lose 15 lbs. At one point, after filming the video for her song, "I Wanna Love You Forever," record executive Tommy Mottola told her, "I want a six-pack for the next video. Janet Jackson abs.

Jessica Simpson reveals childhood sexual abuse

Getty Images

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

The 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 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."

'Extremely uncomfortable'

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.

Jessica simpson biography height Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she's kept since age fifteen, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining. This was supposed to be a very different book. Five years ago, Jessica Simpson was approached to write a motivational guide to living your best life. She walked away from the offer, and nobody understood why.

I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong."

Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. You may want to read 

 and 

privacy policy

 before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

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 s 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 FacebookBBCNewsEnts.

If you have a story suggestion email .