Joe Simpson was a youth minister at a Baptist church in Texas when he left his position to support his daughter Jessica’s career as a pop star. Naturally he became her manager. Because what makes you more prepared to negotiate music contracts, tour schedules, and branding than receiving an associates degree in scripture? His wife Tina, who was a homemaker, supported this dream and dragged younger sister Ashlee along for the ride. Today Jessica has Ashlee “co-designing” her clothing line for tweens. Mom Tina is pretty much the creative director and brains behind Jessica’s booming mom jeans/plastic shoes/accessories empire. Joe founded his own record label Papa Joe Records and has managed the career of international super-nobody Ryan Cabrera and sister Ashlee.
You may have heard that former Baptist pastor Joe is now divorcing his wife Tina after 30+ years of marriage after coming out of the closet. This has, as you can imagine, put some strain on the Simpson clan. One day pops is preaching about family values and the next is dating a 21 year-old aspiring male model.
Radar Online reports “Jessica has sided with her mom because she believes her father has done horribly wrong by her mother and their marriage was a facade.” Ashlee, on the other hand, “is pinning the blame on her mom for not giving Joe enough attention during their marriage. She believes Tina was absent too often and that caused Joe to look elsewhere.”
And all this time I thought Ashlee might have received the majority of brain cells.
It’s her mother’s fault her father calls male escorts because she wasn’t home enough? If she had, perhaps, been back at the old homestead she wouldn’t have gotten herself into this jam.
She knows that’s not exactly how being gay works, right?
-Kate Casey
Kate Casey is a Pop Culture Lover. PR Pro. New mom. Comedy nerd. Celebrity gossip fan. Follow her on Twitter