Nick Lachey is opening up about his Newlyweds history with Jessica Simpson.
Lachey, 51, is not one to discuss his former wife or the hit MTV reality show on which they starred during the early Aughts. But in a new interview with “Richer Lives,” the singer and Love Is Blind host made rare comments about his time on the series.
“Newlyweds obviously became a huge reality show,” Lachey said. “The only one that had come out before that was The Osbournes, which was also a massive show. But that show was created as a vehicle to promote music.”
When deciding to star on Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, which ran from 2003 to 2005, Lachey and Simpson, now 44, took their singing careers into consideration.
“You know, my ex-wife had an album coming out, [I] had an album coming out, I’ll do a little six-episode thing to promote the album,” Lachey explained of his thinking at the time. “We had no idea it was going to take on this other life of being this reality fly-on-the-wall type of show. So that was totally unexpected.”
Newlyweds gave viewers an irresistible glimpse into the couple’s marriage, where Lachey was the self-possessed straight man and Simpson the adorably ditzy comedienne.
“You get very used to [people watching you],” Lachey recalled. “I remember at first they were like, ‘Don’t talk to the crew. They’re a fly on the wall!’ And I was like, ‘Guys, if this is ever going to work, that’s just not how I’m wired. You’re not going to be in my house and watch my every move and we’re not going to talk to each other. We got to get past that right now.’ So I actually came to really love the crew. I remember crying the day we shut down because you develop relationships with them. They really became [a] family.”
Lachey and Simpson divorced in 2006, one year after MTV aired Newlyweds’ third and final season. Looking back, the 98 Degrees frontman is grateful for the experience of broadcasting his personal life to the masses.
“The beautiful thing about reality TV is when you’re in a boy band, people just know you as Nick from 98 Degrees. It’s specifically a pretty female audience,” Lachey said. “What reality TV did for me is it allowed me to introduce myself as Nick Lachey, the person, to the world, and even guys around me [were like], ‘He’s kind of cool. I’d have a beer with that guy.’ … It allowed me to become very comfortable being myself.”
Lachey suggested that he was paid well during the show’s run, noting: “I have no complaints.”
Following his split from Simpson, Lachey met wife Vanessa Lachey (née Minnillo) in 2006 on the set of his music video “What’s Left of Me,” and the twosome married in 2011. The couple share sons Camden, 12, and Phoenix, 8, and daughter Brooklyn, 10, and also cohost the Netflix reality shows Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum.
“I think the beauty of [Love Is Blind] is that you don’t know who’s going to fall in love with who, because you don’t know who’s going to connect on that really kind of organic level that they do on the show,” Lachey exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “So there [have] been some surprises to me. I’m like, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’ And thankfully we’ve had a huge success rate. I think we’ve only had two divorces over the course of eight incredible seasons.”
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