The Jessicas dump their husbands

It's Gossip Time!

Jan 17, 2025

Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an actress and a pop star announce their respective divorces, an actor announces his fresh start, and Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster announce their desire for more attention.

I am currently making my way through Justin Baldoni’s $400 million (LOL) lawsuit against Blake Lively. Please leave all your thoughts, theories, and questions about the Lively-Baldoni legal battle in the comments, and we’ll talk about it all in a post just for paid subscribers next week.

If your name is Jessica, do you know what’s happening in your marriage? In the last week, both Jessica Alba and Jessica Simpson have announced that they are separating from their husbands. And they both want us to know that it’s not exactly amicable. Alba, 43, first leaked the news of her breakup to TMZ and People last week, and then she posted this statement to Instagram yesterday:

jessicaalba

A post shared by @jessicaalba

Note that this is not a joint statement. Her husband Cash Warren, 46, also has Instagram, and they easily could have coordinated something, but no. This declaration, to me, says: I am growing and evolving, and my partner is not.

“Jess has mentioned over the years that it’s hard to keep the spark,” a source told People. Another source revealed that she has retained a divorce attorney.

jessicaalba

A post shared by @jessicaalba

Alba and Warren had a courthouse wedding in 2008 about a month before their first daughter was born. They went on to have two more kids and found The Honest Company, which is currently valued at around $600 million. Alba stepped down as chief creative officer last year but remains on the board of directors, and Alba and Warren both own shares in the company via their family trust. It will be interesting to see how this all gets split up in court. Outside of supporting Alba at Honest, Warren hasn’t done much during the marriage: He produced a few movies and TV shows and founded a sock company.

Simpson, 44, also announced she was separating from her husband, former NFL player Eric Johnson, 45, in a statement this week after months of speculation about the marriage. This one is even more blunt than Alba’s (and definitely not a joint statement).

“Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage,” she told People. “Our children come first, and we are focusing on what is best for them. We are grateful for all of the love and support that has been coming our way, and appreciate privacy right now as we work through this as a family.”

jessicasimpson

A post shared by @jessicasimpson

Okay, so he did something. Simpson suggested as much back in November when she posted a carousel of images on Instagram with a caption written in her signature, somewhat unintelligible style:

Interviews in my Nashville music room where I unearthed my singular magic. This comeback is personal, it’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve 🎶 🎼 🤍🖤

Simpson and Johnson have been married since 2014 and also share three kids. According to Page Six, they have a prenup. Simpson sold her billion-dollar clothing and accessories brand in 2015, but then it went bankrupt, and she successfully bought it back in 2021 with her mother for about $65 million. “I drained everything to buy it back,” she told CNBC.

Shortly after announcing her separation, Simpson relisted the family’s L.A. home for $17 million. I hope she has good people advising her right now.

Divorce lawyers love to say that January is divorce month, because people wake up in the new year and decide they want a fresh start. I guess our Jessicas are proving that theory. Jessica Biel, go next!

Speaking of fresh starts, Us Weekly has a new cover story all about Brad Pitt’s future now that his divorce from Angelina Jolie has been finalized after eight years:

Pitt, 61, has so much to look forward to, like the premiere of his new race car movie and maybe talking to one of his six children again one day. Quoth Us:

“Brad wants to get his life [back] on track and put this behind him,” says the source. “He can start over again.” He’s excited about his highly anticipated race car flick, F1, out in June. Sources say he’s hoping to eventually rebuild his relationships with his six children (he and Jolie, 49, are parents to Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne). And he’s going full speed ahead when it comes to his romance with his girlfriend of two years, jewelry exec Ines de Ramon, 35, who, according to sources, was the catalyst for Pitt finally making peace with Jolie. “Ines helped Brad move forward,” says a second source, “and think about the divorce in a new light.”

I’ll admit that Pitt’s PR team has a tough gig: How do they explain why he doesn’t have a relationship with any of his kids? My best to super cool girl Ines de Ramon, who has been thanklessly tasked with distracting the public from this inconvenient truth.

STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: I have seen several people on social media claiming that Hilary Duff performed at George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005. This is technically incorrect. Duff performed at the “America’s Future Rocks” concert two days before the inauguration alongside other acts like JoJo, Ruben Studdard, Ryan Cabrera, and Three Doors Down. She sang “Come Clean,” which makes sense as Laguna Beach mania was peaking at that time.

She is not a Republican!!!

Finally, I will leave you with this photo of Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster taking a morning walk in their comfy clothes in L.A. on Wednesday:

This is the third time they have done an obvious pap stroll since they went public earlier this month. Here they are making out in an In-N-Out parking lot. Message received!

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