Why Nick Lachey Feels He Had a “Leg Up” After Jessica Simpson Breakup

And Vanessa noted it’s nothing to have regrets about, adding, “We all have messy pasts, all of us.”

Nick—who has said his relationship with Jessica ended in part because they were “playing these parts,” with their fame impacting their “reality”—has previously been open about the scars it gave him.

“I, too, was previously married, divorced,” the 98 Degrees alum told a contestant on season three of The Ultimatum in 2024, “so I understand the hurt, the scars that exist from that.”

“Don’t let your past define your future,” Nick advised at the time. “What I truly always wanted in my life, which was to have a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family, if I hadn’t retained my belief in that, I wouldn’t have ever realized the beautiful life I have with this woman.”

And these days, Nick is in a good place with his ex, revealing earlier this year that he and Vanessa had a run-in with Jessica and her ex Eric Johnson—along with both couple’s kids—during a trip to Hawaii.

“It was strangely OK,” he shared on Watch What Happens Live in May. “You know, it’s been 20 years since—and so we haven’t seen each other in those 20 years and then spent six and a half hours on a flight to Hawaii together. But when I say spent—in the same vicinity.”

“Everyone was very, very cordial, very respectful,” Nick added. “It was honestly fine.”

For a closer look at the life Nick has built with Vanessa and their kids Camden, 14, Brooklyn, 11, and Phoenix, 9, keep reading.