Originally appeared on E! Online
Jessica Simpson isn't afraid to turn her sobriety journey into a public affair.
In fact, the "Sweetest Sin" singer marked a personal milestone on Nov. 1, writing on Instagram, "7yrs ago today I walked myself into the light of being alcohol free."
She accompanied the post with a black-and-white photo of herself by an airplane window overlooking the clouds.
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Simpson began her sobriety journey in 2017, after spending Halloween drinking and struggling to get her and husband Eric Johnson's daughter Maxwell, 12, and son Ace, 11, into their costumes for a school assembly.
"I was terrified of letting them see me in that shape," the fashion designer, who is also mom to 5-year-old daughter Birdie, wrote in her memoir "Open Book." "I am ashamed to say that I don't know who got them into their costumes that night."
In 2020, Simpson shared a photo of herself from the morning after the ordeal, writing on Instagram that it was "an unrecognizable version of myself."
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"I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity," she recalled in her post. "Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and quite honestly I was exhausted."
And for the "Newlyweds" alum, that meant addressing her own demons and "accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage."
"There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic," she continued. "The drinking wasn't the issue. I was. I didn't love myself. I didn't respect my own power."
In cutting alcohol out of her life, the 44-year-old said she has "made nice with the fears."
"I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad," Simpson added. "I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free."
