Jessica Simpson has spoken out after social media users expressed concern over her recent Pottery Barn advertisement.
The 42-year-old singer and actress posted a video of herself to Instagram on Sunday singing along to her 2020 song, “Party of One”. In a lengthy caption, Simpson apepared to address some of the “comments and judgements” she received for the Pottery Barn video, in which critics claimed she appeared to be slurring her words.
“I needed to be in my studio today because this is where I ground myself and heal,” she began the message. “As much as I have learned to block out destructive noise…peoples’ comments and judgements can still hurt deeply with their incessant nagging ‘you will never be good enough.’”
The fashion designer then revealed that she’s been sober for five years, and detailed the lessons she’s learned throughout her sobriety journey. “The most important thing I have learned through the last five years without alcohol being a guard for escapism, is that I CAN and ALWAYS WILL get through it,” Simpson wrote. “I am capable of pretty much anything I care enough about to put my mind to. I am present. I am deeply inspired. I am determined. I am honest. I care about other people.”
Simpson – who shares three children with husband Eric Johnson – went on to explain how she feels “compassion for the opinionated hate” that people “can so effortlessly just blurt out with such intensity” on social media.
“I woke up at the same time anxious and insecure but also angry and defensive – like some of you,” Simpson added. “I know what works for me and that is to let go and simply sing while looking directly inside the mirror, straight in my eyes to really see and understand myself. I can connect with my heartbeat. I am stable and strong. I am home.”
The Open Book author concluded her Instagram message with “a little advice” to her followers: “Live inside your dreams and move through them. Don’t give up on yourself because someone else did. Stay true to YOU. It has worked for me in this chaotic life thus far. Nothin’ and nobody will rob me of my joy. Ya might come close but it is mine to own. Yours should be too.”
Earlier this week, Simpson posted a video advertisement for home furnishing store Pottery Barn to her Instagram. In the ad, Simpson takes viewers through a tour of her three-year-old daughter Birdie Mae Johnson’s fully-furnished bedroom. “I was really drawn to the geometric prints and the colour scheme. This really, to me, is Birdie’s personality,” she said in the video.
However, a majority of the comments section was filled with users discussing Simpson’s appearance and speech.
“Is she ok?” one person wrote, while another claimed the video was “unnerving”. “This is unnerving, she sounds like she is having a hard time talking and even slurring. Not to mention her appearance is shocking,” they wrote.
A third person said: “Why does she talk like that now…it’s just strange, it’s in every video of her talking. Like she is trying really hard to get the words right.”
Still, some fans defended Simpson and told critics to keep their comments to themselves.
“Can we normalise NOT talking about other people’s bodies/faces/appearances? She’s criticised no matter what she does,” said one fan.
“People keep forgetting she is over 40. Women are allowed to age. Women are allowed to not look the same as they did in their 20s,” another person said. “Leave Jessica alone. She is perfectly fine.”
