Setting an example. Jessica Simpson wants her daughters to look up to her as someone with a healthy body image, an insider reveals exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly.
“She wants to set a great example for her children and be a role model to them,” the source says of the Open Book author, 40. “With them getting older, they’re going to go through body changes soon, so she just wants to make sure she can properly educate them on what being healthy really means.”
The “Irresistible” singer shares daughters Maxwell, 9, and Birdie, 2, and son Ace, 7, with husband Eric Johnson, whom she married in 2014.
“She would never want her daughters to experience what she’s suffered mentally with her body,” the insider added, referring to Simpson’s past struggles with public scrutiny of her weight. “She’s working on repairing her mental health and [having] a healthy heart, especially now that she’s in her 40s.”
In her memoir, published in February 2020, the Employee of the Month star wrote candidly about how much other people’s obsession with her fluctuating weight affected her when she was younger. She recalled being told to lose 15 pounds when she was just 17 years old and said that she took diet pills for 20 years. Now, though, she’s managed to put all that behind her.
“It took a long time, but Jessica has finally hit a healthy point in her life where she stopped caring so much about looking perfect,” the source tells Us. “Jessica is not into extreme dieting anymore and caring about what a number on the scale says. She’s solely focused on her overall health.”
Last month, the singer told Hoda Kotb that she doesn’t even have a scale at home anymore. “I threw it out!” she said during an appearance on Today, adding that she no longer knows how much she weighs.
“She doesn’t like when her body is brought up in the media,” the insider continues. “She’s dealt with body scrutiny ever since she was thrust into the public spotlight, so that’s why she decided to share that personal information about throwing away her scale. It was a monumental moment for her that showed just how strong she was from the inside. She’s sick of people asking her about her body and how much she weighs. She wants to shift the focus.”
Johnson, 41, and the rest of Simpson’s family couldn’t be happier about the shift in her attitude, the source adds.
“Her friends and family are extremely proud of her,” says the insider. “They know how hard she’s worked to get to this point and are just supportive of her no matter what. They consider her to be an inspiration. At the end of the day, her decision to throw the scale away was to prove to herself, not to others, that she was capable of letting go of her past body weight insecurities.”
Watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now, for more on Simpson’s goals for her daughters.
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