Jessica Simpson Says She’d Do ‘Newlyweds’ With Nick Lachey All Over Again, Minus The Third Season

Jessica Simpson says she doesn’t regret doing MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica with her ex-husband Nick Lachey – although she would take back the third season. The 39-year-old singer and fashion designer opened up about her starring stint on the early reality show during an appearance on On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

In the interview, Jessica said it was her dad Joe Simpson’s idea to have cameras follow her and Nick during the first year of the marriage more than 15 years ago. Jessica told Seacrest that starring in Newlyweds at age 22 was one of the most “empowering” things she had ever done.

“I do believe that doing ‘Newlyweds’ is what made people — it’s what launched my brand,” Jessica explained. “Absolutely, I would go back and do it all over again. It’s never something I wouldn’t do again, just maybe wouldn’t have done a third season.”

The real-life newlywed couple starred on MTV’s Newlyweds from 2003-2005, but by the end of the third season of the show, their marriage was on the rocks.

With the honeymoon long over, Newlyweds’ third season featured episodes about Nick’s boys weekend in Cabo, Jessica getting a root canal, and her role in the movie The Dukes of Hazzard. In her memoir, Open Book, Jessica admitted she had an “emotional” attachment to her Dukes co-star Johnny Knoxville while filming, which she said was a betrayal to her marriage.

While Jessica doesn’t blame Newlyweds for the demise of her first marriage, in her book, she did reveal producers would sometimes stir the pot, according to TooFab. In Open Book, Jessica recalled that one time a producer showed her a tabloid report about Nick doing “some vague thing” with another woman simply to get a reaction on camera.

Jessica and Nick divorced in 2006. The entrepreneur previously said her biggest regret from her marriage to Nick was not having a prenuptial agreement.

Jessica isn’t the only one who has no regrets about Newlyweds. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (via YouTube), Nick admitted the MTV reality series gave him the chance to show who he was as an individual after being in the boy band 98 Degrees for years.

“The show gave me a great platform to say, ‘Hey, this is who I am.’ And got a lot of fans to this day because of the show. … I vibe with it,” Nick said.

Both Newlyweds stars have since remarried. Jessica wed NFL player Eric Johnson in 2014, while Nick tied the knot with Vanessa Minnillo in 2011. Jessica told Seacrest she has no desire to share her life with Johnson in front of reality TV cameras.