Originally appeared on E! Online
This news will take your breath away.
📺 Watch News4 now: Stream NBC4 newscasts for free right here, right now.
Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson — who share kids Maxwell, 12, Ace, 11, and Birdie, 5 — are living separately after 10 years of marriage.
“Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage,” Simpson told People in a Jan. 13 statement. “Our children come first, and we are focusing on what is best for them. We are grateful for all of the love and support that has been coming our way, and appreciate privacy right now as we work through this as a family.”
The news comes after mounting suspicions that the pair had gone their separate ways after the two had been seen on multiple occasions without their wedding rings as early as Oct. 7.
Since their 2014 nuptials, Simpson — who was previously married to Nick Lachey — often documented her marriage on social media.
In fact, for her now estranged husband’s 44th birthday in September 2023, Simpson shared a sweet tribute to the former NFL player.
PHOTOS: 2024 Celebrity Breakups
“Eric turned 44 on Sept 15 and his family gave him all the love cells we have to celebrate his life,” Simpson, 44, wrote alongside her Sept. 19 post. “My heart is so taken with this Man, I could hardly call it my own….We love youuuu.”
She also explained his absence from the internet, adding, “(he ain’t an Instagram guy, but I always think the more good wishes the better).”
It’s why, when all of a sudden Johnson wasn’t appearing on Simpson’s grid, it was all the more noticeable.
In fact, in the more than a year since Johnson’s birthday, he only appeared on Simpson’s Instagram on two occasions — first for a post chronicling the family’s spring break in April, and the second shared just one day later as a belated Easter photo dump where Johnson was part of the family’s group picture.
Instead, adding fuel to the breakup fires were some of Simpson’s more recent social media posts, which caused followers to speculate whether she was single in the comment sections.
On Sept. 23, Simpson captioned a series of solo shots, in a part one and part two post, “A weekend of much needed self love hugs and pure magnetism.”
That same day, she also shared selfie which she captioned, quoting “Archbishop Harold Holmes” by Jack White, “Hate is trying to take someone else’s love for yourself, but I’m here to tell you that love is trying to help someone else.”
As one user commented on the series, “This screams I’m getting divorced.”
Johnson’s absence on Simpson’s social media was a noticeable one. After all, the 44-year-old often shared snaps of their couple’s getaways, date nights and family vacations, in addition to sharing tributes on birthdays and anniversaries.
Among her most notable was Simpson’s tribute on the pair’s 11th anniversary as a couple. “Our connected hearts are praised and celebrated on this serendipitous day,” she captioned her May 2021 post. “I knew the night we met, the fate of you, locked the key to my searching heart and simply held my soul with love and honor. Then, now and for the rest of my life I am fully and always yours and you mine.”
Simpson continued, “Gaining access to your heart to dwell and reside in, is the greatest gift I will ever rest within until the end of time. Time goes by, the perfect children you gave me are growing older, but with you and I time does not exist for it only allows space to broaden … expanding beyond horizons just to love and be loved.”
