Jessica Simpson reveals she contracted coronavirus as she unveils cover art for her new essay

Jessica Simpson reveals she had COVID-19 as she unveils cover art for new essay: ‘This past year has been especially intense’

Jessica Simpson revealed she contracted coronavirus this past year as she unveiled the cover for her new essay, Take The Lead.

Though she did not specify exactly when the health scare occurred, Simpson, 40, said she tested positive for the virus on the same day she began writing her Amazon Original Story.

‘This past year has been especially intense for me and so many of you,’ Jessica wrote in the caption of her cover book post. ‘I started writing this essay on the same day I received a positive test result for COVID-19.

‘This past year has been especially intense’: Jessica Simpson revealed she contracted coronavirus this past year as she unveiled the cover for her new essay, Take The Lead

‘I decided instead of being drive by fear, I would manifest a hopeful conversation with you. I felt strong, resilient, and God- inspired through my pen teaching me as I was sharing with you ways to get to the other side of fear.’ 

Simpson’s new essay Take The Lead is just one of two she will be releasing as part of her partnership with Amazon Studios.

She also will be creating a scripted series chronicling her life in her mid-twenties and an unscripted docuseries based on her memoir Open Book with Amazon. 

Simpson has recently released the paperback version of her bestselling memoir Open Book, and on Sunday shared an intimate journal entry included in the new version.

Spreading her wings: Simpson has recently released the paperback version of her bestselling memoir Open Book, and on Sunday she shared an intimate journal entry included in the new version

Spreading her wings: Simpson has recently released the paperback version of her bestselling memoir Open Book, and on Sunday she shared an intimate journal entry included in the new version

Jessica wrote: ‘Could the songbird no longer have the hum to make others fly. Did she lose flight to somewhere out there, over there, outside of the inside. Does she no longer have the strong wings to glide… Maybe she has become the blue bird, whose song will finally be heard.’

In the accompanying passage, Simpson explained how she ‘suppressed’ her true emotions in order to be the happy-go-lucky singer the world expected of her.  

‘Birds are always important to me,’ Simpson wrote in a passage in the book. ‘There is a Charles Bukowski poem that describes the bluebird in his heart desperate to escape. 

‘He thought he had to keep it down to appear tough, and I thought I had to suppress mine because people wanted the happy songbird, and not the bluebird, that represented my true soul. I was wrong. Now I know both birds can and must coexist.’ 

Honest and open: The memoir revealed Simpson's struggles with addiction, her marriage with ex Nick Lachey, and being sexually abused as a child

Honest and open: The memoir revealed Simpson’s struggles with addiction, her marriage with ex Nick Lachey, and being sexually abused as a child

The bestselling memoir revealed Simpson’s struggles with addiction, her marriage with ex Nick Lachey, and being sexually abused as a child.  

The touchy subjects discussed in Simpson’s book, however, are not off-limits for discussion at her home. 

Simpson recently revealed she has been ‘very open’ about the sexual abuse she endured as a young girl with her children.

‘They have read some of it,’ she said recently on Good Morning America. ‘There’s nothing that’s off-limits. We’re very open as a family. For me, when I talk about sexual abuse and stuff, that stuff happened to me when I was younger than they are and at the age that they are. So, it is something that we are very open about.’

Simpson revealed in her memoir Open Book that the daughter of a family friend sexually abused her when she was six-years-old.

The singer kept the abuse secret for years, and she did not tell her parents about it until six years after it began.

Out now: Simpson released Open Book last year, and a paperback version of the memoir has since been released

Out now: Simpson released Open Book last year, and a paperback version of the memoir has since been released