Nick Lachey Had A “Very Respectful” Encounter With Jessica Simpson

It’s been two decades since Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey divorced, but ex encounters can happen in the unlikeliest of places.

In April, rumors swirled that the exes had run into each other on a flight to Hawaii, with TMZ claiming that the stars “went out of their way to avoid each other,” while People reported that the pair were “very amicable and cordial,” and even had a “nice conversation” with Lachey’s wife of 15 years, Vanessa Lachey.

Finally, during a May 13 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Lachey set the record straight. “It is true,” he told host Andy Cohen of their respective families crossing paths in the air, adding that the run-in was “strangely OK.”

The 98 Degrees singer noted that he hadn’t seen Simpson in 20 years before spending six-and-a-half hours on a flight together — or at least “in the same vicinity,” he clarified. “Everyone was very, very cordial, very respectful.”

While the exes — who starred together on their own reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, in the early 2000s — haven’t seen each other since parting ways in 2006, they’ve made rare comments about each other in the years that followed. As Simpson told People in 2020, “We really got crushed by the media and by ourselves. I couldn’t lie to our fans and I couldn’t give somebody hope that we were this perfect golden couple.”

That same year, Today anchor Hoda Kotb relayed to the Lacheys that Simpson had said she’d received a gift from the couple after giving birth. “It wasn’t us, but thank you whoever sent it from us,” Vanessa said, later adding: “I don’t know her address.”

Simpson later smoothed over any potential awkwardness on Radio Andy, explaining: “I don’t really know that I got a gift, per se. But my gift with Nick is that he is happy, and that he is married, and he has three beautiful children.”

Indeed, on a Season 3 episode of Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On (which, like Love Is Blind, he hosts with Vanessa), Lachey opened up about moving on from the split.

“I, too, was previously married. Divorced. So I understand the hurt, the scars that exist from that,” he told contestants. “I just want to encourage you all: Don’t let your past define your future. What I truly always wanted in my life — which was to have a beautiful marriage and a beautiful family — if I hadn’t retained my belief in that, I wouldn’t have ever realized the beautiful life that I have with this woman.”