Jessica Simpson has now spoken out about being body shamed “by the world” after photographs of her at a concert in Texas went viral in 2009.

Jessica was feeling good about her figure until photos of her performing at Radio 99.9 Kiss Country’s annual Chili Cookoff went viral on the internet.

After the widespread body shaming, Jessica withdrew from public view for six months. Now, 11 years later, she’s finally spoken up about how it impacted her.

Jessica Simpson said she was ‘heartbroken’ after being fat-shamed for these “mom jeans” photosCredit: Getty Images – Getty

She said that being fat-shamed for those iconic “mom jeans” photographs left her “heartbroken.”

According to reports, the 39-year-old said it was a tough moment for her and that the reception to the photographs had “disheartened” her.

“I beat myself up over it. I was taking diet pills and pinching my fat until it bruised,” she said.

Jessica’s photographs were splattered all over the internet shortly after she took the stage, with headlines calling her “Jumbo Jessica” and “beefy,” while criticizing her “mom jeans” and advising her to “let herself go.”

“This picture that circulated and went worldwide broke my heart. Not the picture necessarily, but the caption. Like, all the captions. It was just viral,” the 39-year-old fashion designer told Hoda Kotb on the Today show on Tuesday, February 4. “I was taken down by the world.”

Jessica Simpson was severely embarrassed by headlines like “Jumbo Jessica Simpson: Packin’ On The Pounds In Photos,” “Jessica Simpson Shows Off New Beefy Bod,” and “Jessica Simpson Packs it in for Tony Romo.”

She said, “People were used to seeing me washing a car in a bikini.”

She went on to add that she has evolved since then and now has “a lot of confidence in the woman I am today”.

“The person I’m presenting to people (today) is very vulnerable and very raw, but I can take ownership over her,” she said. She just published her autobiography, in which she discussed her personal relationships, drug use, and childhood trauma.

She further said that one of her initial reactions to the commotion was to feel “embarrassed” for her then-boyfriend, Tony Romo.

Simpson stated in her new memoir, Open Book, that she was a size 4 and weighed “around 120 pounds”. At the time, the “Come On Over” singer was dating NFL quarterback Tony Romo.

The singer said she was only a size 4 at the timeCredit: Getty Images – Getty

“It was awful, but the worst part was this: my very first thought was not my pain at becoming a joke or everyone laughing at me. No it was, ‘Oh no, I feel so bad that Tony has to be with the fat girl,’” Simpson wrote in the book.

“Tony never made me feel [insecure],” she said, “I always felt confident when I was with Tony. But I was taken down by the world.”

Such harsh remarks exacerbated her addiction problems, which came in part from the agony of being sexually molested as a kid beginning when she was six years old.

Jessica also spoke with Glamour about the body-shaming event, stating that she was confident in her looks on the day in question and that the abuse had shattered her desire to perform.

“I felt good up there,” she said. “I felt confident. And then it ruined the stage for me. And the stage was my home. It broke my home.”

“I’d already had broken moments within a home where I had to walk out of a marriage,” she continued, “But my stage has been like my home since I was, like, a child. That’s where I could be honestly alone with myself.”

While Romo, 39, believed the response was “ludicrous,” the event left the singer “devastated and confused.”

“I definitely would drink. I’m like, ‘I need to,’” Simpson told Kotb. “When you hear somebody say that they need to that’s not a good sign.”

She also said that on her 35th birthday, she had a partial stomach tuck.

“The surgery wasn’t for weight loss,” Jessica writes in her book. “I weighed 107 pounds when I planned the surgery. I wanted to get rid of the stretch marks and loose skin left sagging from my back-to-back pregnancies.

“I was so ashamed of my body at this point that I wouldn’t let [husband Eric Johnson] see me without a white T-shirt on. I had sex with it on and even showered with it on. I couldn’t bear to look at myself.”

Jessica wasn’t happy with the results, stating, “I still had loose skin that hung over my pants.”

“This surgery was more involved,” Jessica stated.

She got colitis after recovering at a hotel following the procedure.

Jessica recalled “vomiting so much I thought I was going to bust my sutures.”

She was admitted to the hospital and spent nine days there, with doctors considering a blood transfusion for the sick singer.

Jessica, on the other hand, believes the scrutiny would not have transpired in the same way today, and she is pleased “times are changing.”

“I’m so happy that times are changing now and more women are accepted for who they are,” she said. “People are flaunting themselves at every size, because that’s how it absolutely should be.”

Simpson, who has three children with husband Eric Johnson: Maxwell, 7, Birdie, 10 months, and Ace, 6, has made it a goal to educate her children to love themselves. She mentioned in her book that her eldest daughter was worried about butter on her bread making her “fat.” She was six years old at the time.

“I thought, ‘How does she even know what ‘fat’ is?’” Simpson wrote. “It was a wake-up call. She already has this world to grow up in, and I want her to feel safe enough to love herself and the body that God gave her.”