Jessica Simpson Weighs In On Whether John Mayer Should Publicly Apologize To Her!

Does Jessica Simpson have closure from her relationship with John Mayer?

Well, she’s definitely moved on and is now happily married to former football player Eric Johnson. But the way the songwriter treated her during their relationship — way back in the early 2000s — left its mark, enough for her to revisit the pain in her 2020 memoir Open Book.

In the time since it’s been published, we’ve had something of a reckoning regarding how pop princesses were treated in the media, thanks to efforts like Framing Britney Spears. That documentary led Justin Timberlake to publicly apologize for his treatment of Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. So in an upcoming appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, the host asked Jessica if she expects the same from John.

The singer replied:

“No, I definitely don’t feel that I am owed a public apology. I mean, you can’t take it back, you know. And I’m a very forgiving person but I’m also honest. So, in the memoir, if I’m gonna talk about stuff that caused me pain, I’m going to be honest about it. And that was a time in my life where I was very manipulated and also in love, or seemingly. And now that I have the love of Eric, it’s just such a different thing.”

She continued:

“And I wouldn’t expect an apology, I don’t think that there’s a need for an apology. Because I feel like… you know… I don’t know, I feel like people end up finding their way to let you know they’re sorry.”

Wow! So does that mean he may have reached out to her already? Probably not, since the 40-year-old added:

“I mean, he might not be sorry, and that’s okay. … We were kinda like on-off, on-off at that time. But to talk about anybody sexually is kind of disrespectful, but I mean, that’s on him.”

For his part, the Grammy winner told pal Andy Cohen that he had “heard some bits” of the memoir last year. However, he deflected:

“[As] Pee Wee Herman says in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure before the movie of his life is about to play out at the end, he’s not watching the movie, and the reason he’s not watching the movie, he says, ‘I don’t have to watch it, Dottie, I lived it.’ And I think that’s prescient here.”

Not exactly an apology. But in fairness, back in 2012 he did express regret over comments about exes Jennifer Aniston and Jessica (remember, he called the mother of three “sexual napalm” in a 2010 Playboy interview). On the NPR show All Things Considered, he admitted:

“I had nothing to say. I was going through a time in my life where I didn’t really want to share what was going on, but I didn’t want to be boring. When you’re just open, but not honest, then you start free-associating garbage. It doesn’t mean I can go back and scrub it out, but I understand it now.”

Again, not quite an apology. And maybe Jessica’s right that an apology just isn’t necessary at this point. But considering his empathetic reaction to Framing Britney Spears, it would be nice to see John own up to his part in a culture that has objectified and sexualized female stars for so long.

What do U think, Perezcious readers? Should the Battle Studies artist issue a mea culpa anyway? Or would it be best to keep his mouth shut at this point? Let us know your thoughts in the comments (below)!

[Image via WENN/Avalon]