The singer, who has been sober since 2017, opened about her journey during a concert in Highland, Calif., on Monday.

Jessica Simpson quit drinking ‘because I became somebody that I was afraid of’

The singer, who has been sober since 2017, opened about her journey during a concert in Highland, Calif., on Monday.

By Kathleen Perricone

June 3, 2026 11:38 p.m. ET

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Jessica Simpson in 2025. Credit:

Taylor Hill/WireImage

- Jessica Simpson is opening up about sobriety in a new song, "Give It All Away," which she performed Monday night in Highland, Calif.

- "I became somebody that I was afraid of, somebody that I just did not know, and did not understand," she told fans.

- Simpson made the decision to quit drinking in 2017 after she was unable to take her children trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Jessica Simpson has been candid about her sobriety, and now she's sharing her story in a new song.

The singer debuted "Give It All Away," cowritten by Linda Perry, on Monday during her set at the Yaamava' Resort & Casino in Highland, Calif., Simpson, who has been sober since 2017, introduced the track by sharing with fans her long journey to healing.

Jessica Simpson performs on 'Today' in 2025.

James Devaney/GC Images

"I didn't understand all of the traumas that I was holding onto," she confessed. "It was really painful, and once I started searching in myself to find what I could reveal, because I became somebody that I was afraid of, somebody that I just did not know, and did not understand. I was a mother, and I felt like I wasn't being a good role model, and I felt really alone."

Simpson explained that it would be another year before she finally had an "aha moment" about her alcohol abuse.

"I realized that the drinking wasn’t numbing my pain, it was actually *causing* more pain," she tearfully revealed. "It was just a crutch that wasn’t working."

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Even now, nearly nine years since she chose to get sober, "I'm just a work in progress," Simpson admitted. "I celebrate each and every day that I feel alive in my body, and I'm very proud of myself, and so it felt right to share this song with you. I want all of you to know that you should have a little grace for yourself and everything is going to be okay if you just 'give it all away.' That’s what this song is about."

Coincidentally, her younger sister Ashlee Simpson recorded a song in 2004 titled "Giving It All Away" with a similar sentiment, except the lyrics encourage the listener to stop "giving it all away" to their vices.

Simpson made the decision to quit drinking on Nov. 1, 2017, after she spent Halloween with her three children "dazed and confused."

"I just wanted to go to sleep. I didn't take them trick-or-treating," she admitted on *Today* in January 2020. "I didn't show up for my family. I took the picture and I made the world think that I showed up."

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Last November, she celebrated the eighth anniversary of her sobriety as she also navigated the end of her marriage to former NFL player Eric Johnson.

"Today I am clear. Today I am driven by faith," Simpson shared on Instagram. "Both fear and faith are something that we feel and may not see, I’m so happy I chose faith over fear. It was not in the fight that I found my strength, it was in the surrender."

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