Page Six<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n\u201cYou know, there\u2019s Britney Spears, there\u2019s Christina Aguilera, we love them, we support them. I had to, like, follow in their footsteps,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I really thought that I was signed just because of my voice, and all of a sudden it was like, \u2018OK, you need to lose 15 pounds [7kg] \u2014 and by the way, I was 115 pounds [52kg],\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
Simpson said she was just 17 years old when she was instructed to lose weight, which was \u201ca lot\u201d for her to handle.<\/p>\n
The musician revealed that by her sophomore album, Irresistible, the label told her she \u201cneeded to have a six pack \u2014 which was definitely not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just not built that way, you know? I have a belly a little bit,\u201d she proudly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were just all these things that I had to be to be Jessica Simpson, or the version of Jessica Simpson that they believed I should be, that would be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always felt like a failure because I was never good enough,\u201d she heartbreakingly admitted.<\/p>\n
Last year, Simpson released her two-part EP, Nashville Canyon \u2014 her first new music in 15 years.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old said working on the album over the last three years helped \u201cheal\u201d her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like walking onstage is almost more comfortable than my living room at home,\u201d she shared. \u201cAnd it\u2019s such a beautiful feeling. It really is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last December, Simpson opened up about never feeling \u201cgood enough\u201d in the earlier days of her music career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole music career, you know I had a job, and it was to be a pop star and I tried but I will say when you\u2019re younger you just never feel good enough and it\u2019s OK to not feel good enough,\u201d she admitted during a Connecticut concert.<\/p>\n
The With You hitmaker rose to stardom at just 19 years old with her hit debut single I Wanna Love You Forever and album Sweet Kisses, which was released in 1999 by Columbia Records.<\/p>\n
Simpson went on to release several more chart-topping albums, including 2003\u2019s In This Skin and 2006\u2019s Public Affair, making her a household name in pop music.<\/p>\n
Her most recent album was inspired by the downfall of her marriage with Eric Johnson.<\/p>\n
The former couple wed in 2014 and share three children: daughters Maxwell, 14, and Birdie, 7, as well as son Ace, 12.<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared in Page Six<\/a> and was reproduced with permission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Simpson was forced to lose weight by her record label who wanted her to compete with Britney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[12587,1936,179,430,4939,13686,240174,156,12903,240175,9499,240170,240171,4223,94297,12904,9388,74303,111,139,64,13902,69,9016,11218,45475,29205,240169,240173,13883,240172,240176],"class_list":["post-476725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-america","tag-britney-spears","tag-california","tag-celebrities","tag-christina-aguilera","tag-connecticut","tag-cruel-weight-demands","tag-entertainment","tag-eric-johnson","tag-fellow-pop-star","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-heartbreaking-revelation","tag-hitmaker-rose","tag-hollywood","tag-household-name","tag-jessica-simpson","tag-maxwell","tag-music-career","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-nz","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pop-music","tag-pop-star","tag-record-label","tag-shocking-weight-demands","tag-sophomore-album","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unrealistic-demands","tag-weight-demands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}