Jessica Simpson celebrated being four years sober on Monday by sharing an unflinching look at her battle with alcoholism.
To mark the milestone, the fashion mogul shared a haunting throwback photo where she looks almost unrecognizable and explained it was taken on the day she vowed to stop drinking. Simpson’s face is red, puffy and streaked with tears as she sits in what appears to be her living room.
“This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself,” the singer writes. “I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore. I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity. Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol.”
Simpson said she knew in that moment that drinking “kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction” and that she “was exhausted” from the pain.
“I wanted to live as a leader,” she continued, noting that in order to do so, she had to never look back “with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make.”
Simpson then opened up about the “stigma around the word alcoholism” and explained what it means to commit to a sober lifestyle.
“The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage. The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was,” she said. “I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do.”
Simpson says she now embraces every part of herself, including the “parts of my life that are just sad,” and that makes her “free.”
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.