Nick Lachey Opens Up ‘Scars’ from Divorce with Jessica Simpson: ‘I Understand the Hurt’

Nick Lachey is opening up about past hurts.

Speaking to a contestant on season three of The Ultimatum, released on Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 4, the host, 51, said he understands the pain of divorce following his 2006 split from Jessica Simpson.

“I, too, was previously married, divorced, so I understand the hurt, the scars that exist from that,” Nick, who married Simpson in 2002 said, per E! News. 

“Don’t let your past define your future,” he continued on The Ultimatum, which follows couples as they interact with potential partners before deciding whether to continue or split from their existing relationships.

Speaking about his new marriage to Vanessa Lachey Nick added, “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.”

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Nick and Simpson, 44, met at the Hollywood Christmas Parade in Los Angeles in 1998. They then reconnected a month later at a party for Teen PEOPLE in Florida and began dating soon after. 

The couple went on to tie the knot in a ceremony with 350 guests in 2002 before starring in their MTV reality series, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, for three seasons — with their wedding immortalized in the opening credits.

In November 2005 they announced they’d split and Simpson filed for divorce the month after. Their separation was then finalized in 2006.

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Simpson has since moved on with former NFL star Eric Johnson, whom she has been married to since 2014. The pair also share daughter Maxwell “Maxi” Drew, 12, son Ace Knute, 11, and daughter Birdie Mae, 5.

Nick also shares sons Camden, 12, and Phoenix, 7, and daughter Brooklyn, 9, with his wife Vanessa, 44.