Jessica Simpson was ‘hard to love’ until she met husband Eric Johnson

Jessica Simpson Collection CEO Jessica Simpson admitted she needed to find a soul mate who embraced her career and her ‘demanding work schedule’ rather than someone who made her feel like ‘a roadie all the time’ or some traditional football wife.

The 43-year-old clothing mogul – who was married to Newlyweds co-star Nick Lachey for three years ending 2006 – found her forever person with second husband, retired NFL tight end Eric Johnson.

‘He really embraces my career,’ Jessica gushed in a People interview published Wednesday.

‘I don’t find it hard to love anybody, but I have always thought that I was hard to love, that I was too much for people, or my schedule was too demanding. I couldn’t be a roadie all the time. I couldn’t be a football wife. It was hard.’

The 43-year-old stay-at-home dad was still technically married to former pole-dancing instructor Keri D’Angelo Cohen when he originally met Simpson through a mutual friend at her May 2010 house party, and he finalized his divorce just five months later.

Eric – who played for the San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints from 2001-2007 – hasn’t had a career of his own since co-founding the since-shuttered wellness content platform Legendary Disciplines in 2020 with Sifu Matthew Cohen.

The platinum-blonde Texan and Massachusetts-born Johnson impressively celebrated nine years of wedded bliss on July 5.

‘It’s nuts. It’s kind of crazy. I feel like Eric and I have been together so much longer,’ Jessica marveled.

‘We have been together for a long time, but it feels like 20 [years]. My life before him, I had a blast. But once I met Eric, I feel like it was more nurtured. Everything was more supported. Everything felt so easy.’

Simpson added: ‘He knows my heart and understands my heart more than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. I knew the instant we met that I could see my future in his eyes and with a lot of people, I hope for a future in their eyes, but with Eric, I saw it.’

The PetSafe paid partner and her Yale-educated 6ft3in silver fox share a $11.5M six-bedroom Hidden Hills mansion with their three children – daughter Maxwell Drew, 11; son Ace Knute, 10; and daughter Birdie Mae, 4.

Jessica said the key to a lasting marriage is ‘communication’ and being ‘best friends’ since ‘you’re doing everything in life together.’

‘It is good to keep the romance there even with three kids on top of her head. It’s hard but he’ll leave me little notes because he’ll wake up earlier than me,’ Simpson gushed to Access last Friday.

‘And now it’s like our kids are so old. It’s like, wow, they’re gonna walk in on hanky-panky time. So like, “What do we do, how do we do this? Where do we go?” It has [happened] but I think we’re in denial about it as is the child. 

‘So it’s not really been something that we’ve talked about. Although, I did just have to feel fill in one of like my middle child in on certain things, but he luckily has not walked in. I think he would stand there and be like, “What are you doing?!”‘

The former pop star – who amasses 770K monthly listeners on Spotify – spent the summer in Nashville recording new music, telling E! News: ‘I feel like it crosses all generations and all genres, so you’re gonna hear a little bit of everything.’