Nick Lachey feels he has a “head start” in his marriage to Vanessa Lachey following his split from Jessica Simpson.
The “Love Is Blind” co-host, 52, made the rare comment about his 2006 divorce from Simpson during the show’s Season 11 premiere on Oct. 14.
While in the women’s lounge with his wife and co-host, Vanessa, Nick spoke with contestant Erika Ellis, who revealed, “I’ve been married before and struggled with dates in the past knowing when the right time to share was.”
Nick, who was married to Simpson from October 2002 to June 2006, responded: “Well, as some of you may know, I was already married before I met my incredible wife.
“I would say it gives you an advantage because you know from that experience what you really want,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Vanessa, 45, reassured Ellis that there was nothing to regret about having a previous marriage, adding: “We all have a complicated past, all of us.”
Nick and Simpson, 46, starred in the MTV reality series “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” which aired from 2003 to 2005.
The 98 Degrees singer previously admitted that his divorce from Simpson left him with “scars.”
When speaking with a contestant about his fears about marriage in Season 3 of Netflix’s “The Ultimatum,” Nick said, “I, too, have been married before, divorced, so I understand the pain, the scars that come with that.”
“Don’t let your past define your future,” he added. “What I really always wanted in my life, which was to have a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family, if I hadn’t kept that belief in that, I would never have achieved the beautiful life that I have with this woman,” referring to his current wife, Vanessa.
Most recently, Nick and Simpson got into an awkward altercation on a flight from Los Angeles to Kauai, Hawaii in March.
Nick then appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” in May, where he described their reunion on the plane as “strangely OK,” noting that it had been 20 years since they got married.
“We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years and then spent six and a half hours together on a flight to Hawaii,” he said, adding that they were simply “in the same vicinity” and that “everyone was very, very cordial” and “very respectful.”
Nick also claimed that Simpson’s three children with ex-husband Eric Johnson — daughter Maxwell, 14, son Ace, 13, and daughter Birdie, 7 — were in a “separate class of service,” suggesting they were flying economy while Simpson sat in first class.
Simpson later defended the arrangement, explaining that her mother, Tina Ann Drew, purchased the tickets for them.
The singer, who announced her separation from Johnson in January 2025 after 10 years of marriage, has since gone public with her new boyfriend, musician Thomas Eisenhood.
Meanwhile, Nick, who married Vanessa in 2011, shares three children with his wife: son Camden, 14, daughter Brooklyn, 11, and son Phoenix, 9.
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