Jessica Simpson’s world was turned “upside down” when she broke up with her estranged husband Eric Johnson.
The “With You” singer reflected on her new chapter as a “very single lady” at the Luck Reunion music festival in Spicewood, Texas, on Thursday, as she performed her first concert in 15 years.
“Like I said, I was out in Nashville and I had my heart wide open,” Simpson, 44, told the audience while reminiscing about writing her new album, “Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1,” which drops March 21.
“I was in a very intuitive state and I had asked some very personal questions on the home front and I found out that my world had been turned upside down and that life was now very different,” she continued, adding, “I’m a very single lady.”
The “Employee of the Month” actress admitted that being vulnerable can sometimes lead to a broken heart.
“You know, when we open our hearts, sometimes we’re vulnerable and it just gets broken and maybe sometimes we forget that we’ve been broken for a really long time,” she shared.
Fortunately, the pop star has used her art as a form of expression and a way to heal.
“When we meet ourselves, when we write, when we sing, when we connect with ourselves, we find all the answers,” she said.
Simpson then went on to introduce her new song, “Leave,” as a “kind of a heartbreak, pissed-off song” before performing the track live.
The fiery single was released last week and features lyrics suggesting Johnson cheated on her during their marriage.
“What we had was magic / Now you made it tragic / Giving her what you gave to me / Now the well that you drank from’s empty,” she sings in the opening lines of the song.
She then sings about “unholy matrimony” and how his “weakness” made her “lonely.”
“Did you do to her what you did to me? / Was she on her knees? / Oh, she’s everything but me,” the lyrics continue.
“Oh, I, I’d rather die / Then let you be inside me with her on your mind,” she sings, revealing that she is “stronger” on her own.
“So hold on / I’m letting you go,” she adds.
The fashion designer announced that she and the retired football player, 45, were separating after 10 years of marriage in January.
“Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage,” she said in a statement at the time.
Simpson said her and Johnson’s three children — Maxwell, 12, Ace, 11, and Birdie, 5 — “come first” and that the parents are “focusing on what is best for them.”
“We are grateful for all of the love and support that has been coming our way, and appreciate privacy right now as we work through this as a family,” she said.
The now-exes sparked separation speculation in 2023 after Simpson stopped wearing her wedding ring and ceased posting social media content with him.
Page Six later revealed that Simpson’s new EP, her first in more than a decade, was heavily inspired by their breakup.
The “Open Book” author and the San Francisco 49ers alum started dating in 2010 while Johnson was still married to his first wife, Keri D’Angelo.
Johnson and D’Angelo finalized their divorce later that year and he married Simpson in 2014.
Simpson was previously married to Nick Lachey from 2002 to 2006. Their turbulent marriage was famously documented in their three-season MTV reality show, “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.”
The hitmaker was also romantically linked to Tony Romo, Adam Levine, Johnny Knoxville and John Mayer.
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