Ashlee Simpson Artistfacts

October 3, 1984
Ashlee is the 4-years younger sister of Jessica Simpson, who got famous on MTV in 2003 thanks to her reality show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. Ashlee got her own show on the network in 2004 called The Ashlee Simpson Show, which showed her launching her music career.
Her sister Jessica never had a #1 album, but Ashlee had two: Autobiography in 2004 and I Am Me in 2005.
She and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy formed a pop music power couple when they started dating in 2006. They got married in 2008 but divorced in 2011. They had a son named Bronx in 2008, whom they've successfully co-parented. Wentz and Simpson speak well of each other.
When she married Evan Ross in 2014, Diana Ross became her mother-in-law. Diana officiated their wedding.
Ashlee studied ballet and was a dancer on her sister Jessica's early tours. Ashlee shows up in Jessica's 1999 video for "I Think I'm In Love With You."
She had a role on the TV series 7th Heaven from 2002-2004. The show was very popular with teenage girls, and many became fans when Simpson started making music. She was still on the show when she started work on her debut album.
Simpson's first appearance on Saturday Night Live resulted in one of the most high-profile lip-synch reveals in history. The show took place on October 23, 2004, about a month after her first single, "Pieces Of Me," had peaked on the charts. She was having problems with her voice, but instead of canceling the appearance, she asked to lip-synch. The show complied, but played the wrong song for her second performance, resulting in a very awkward moment when she and her band were just standing around on stage while her song was playing. It had a major impact on her career and reputation. "The bullying was insane," she said.
Her influences include Fiona Apple, Courtney Love and Shirley Manson of Garbage - ladies who write their own songs and sing like they're about to bleed out the lyrics.
Simpson has writing credits on all of her songs. Most of the songs on her first two albums she wrote with John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi. "It was just us three, and it was just so real and so special," she told the Los Angeles Times. "John was strict on me in good ways. He's like, 'OK, little teenage Ashlee - time to focus.' And I loved that because it felt like it was a real teacher."

Shanks' other clients include Miley Cyrus, Colbie Caillat, Backstreet Boys and Bon Jovi; DioGuardi has written songs for Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert and Kelly Clarkson.
After touring in 2008, Simpson stopped performing to focus on family. In 2015 she added daughter Jagger to the brood, followed by son Ziggy in 2020. Ashlee returned to action in 2025 with a residency at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas called I Am Me, named after her second album.

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