Jessica Simpson Reveals the Real Reason She Left L.A.—and Her Kids—To Move to Nashville as She Opens Up About Eric Johnson Divorce

Pop star Jessica Simpson has opened up about her decision to relocate from her $18 million Los Angeles mansion in favor of enjoying a much more low-key lifestyle in Nashville, TN—while speaking out about the surprising way the move impacted her music career.

Simpson, 44, announced in January that she and her husband, former NFL player Eric Johnson, are divorcing, revealing at the time that the couple had been “living separately” before they shared the news of their split.

Now, in a candid interview with her sister, fellow musician Ashlee Simpson Ross, for The Cut, Simpson has opened up about how moving away from her estranged spouse and their shared $18 million marital home in L.A. helped to provide her with the emotional clarity she needed to write her new album, “Nashville Canyon.”

She explained that giving up alcohol and writing her memoir, “Open Book,” made her realize that she needed to free herself from distractions in order to write her album, something that she didn’t think she would find in Los Angeles.

“As mothers, we’re people pleasers. We want to make sure everybody’s happy, nobody’s crying,” she said. “We come last here in L.A. I needed to go somewhere where I was first. Not that I didn’t think of my children.”

The former reality star revealed that she and Johnson continued co-parenting their three children—Maxwell, 12, Ace, 11, and Birdie, 5—while she was living in a rental property in Tennessee, explaining that the kids spent time with her in that home, as well as in the family’s mansion in California where their father was residing.

Two days before announcing their split, the couple put the property on the market for a second time with a reduced asking price of $17.9 million—having initially listed it for $22 million back in 2023.

Speaking to her sibling from inside the home, Simpson explained that she doesn’t know whether she will relocate to Nashville full-time after selling the property, but said she is confident in her decision to leave Los Angeles once and for all.

“I feel like I’ve been home too long. My L.A. house is on the market. I don’t know where I’m going next, but it’s time to go,” she said.

Although she and Johnson have split, Simpson was full of praise for her estranged spouse, expressing her gratitude towards him for allowing her to have the freedom to move to Nashville in order to write her album.

“It is a gift. Eric supported that gift. My kids supported that gift,” she said of the time she spent in Tennessee.

Speaking of her decision to relocate to Nashville, Simpson explained that it was prompted by a realization she had while celebrating her daughter Maxwell’s 11th birthday in the city, explaining that it was that moment that made her “see the light.”

“I had to be in Nashville. I started looking at real estate that day,” she recalled.

In addition to the emotional space that Nashville afforded her, there was also one other very exciting upside to live in the Tennessee city that Simpson enjoyed: no paparazzi.

“Another great thing about Nashville is there’s no paparazzi. I literally was doing cartwheels down the Walmart aisles,” she joked.

According to Simpson’s Instagram account, she has been traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and Nashville in recent months as she prepares to release her album on March 21.

She was living at her L.A. property in January, when several wildfires broke out in the city, tearing through several neighborhoods and destroying thousands of structures.

In a post shared to her social media accounts on Jan. 9, Simpson revealed that she and her children had been forced to evacuate their home, sharing an image of the seven-bedroom, 10.5-bathroom dwelling engulfed by clouds of smoke.

“We stayed as long as we could,” she captioned the photo.

Thankfully, the home is not thought to have sustained any damage in the blazes, which claimed the lives of 29 people, according to Cal Fire.

The 13,274-square-foot dwelling hit the market just a few days after the fires began burning through Los Angeles, with the listing describing it as a “private retreat, tucked away at the end of an intimate cul-de-sac.”

“Featured in the esteemed pages of Architectural Digest, every detail has been meticulously crafted to create a truly captivating living experience,” the description adds.

Simpson purchased the home in 2013, one year before she tied the knot with Johnson in an intimate ceremony in Montecito, CA.

She paid $11.5 million for the home—which she bought from rock ‘n’ roll legend Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, Sharon.