Fans believe that Nick Lachey seemingly shaded his first wife, Jessica Simpson, this week when he said marriage is "always better the second time."
Lachey made the comment to former contestant Matt Bolton on dating reality series "Love is Blind" during the season three reunion, which aired Thursday. Bolton, who was previously married to his high school sweetheart, met his second wife on the show.
The Netflix show is co-hosted by Lachey and his second wife Vanessa Lachey.
After they fist-bumped, Bolton answered Lachey, "Cheers to that" while laughing.
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Lachey and Simpson were married from 2002 until 2006. He married then-Vanessa Minnillo in 2011. Simpson remarried in 2014 to former football player Eric Johnson.
Lachey and Simpson each have three kids in their new marriages.
Fans of Simpson and the show defended the "I Wanna Love You Forever" singer over the remark.
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One person tweeted, "I’m sorry but did nick lachey just fist pump Matt saying "always better the second time around" as a dig to Jessica Simpson? Felt icky!"
Another wrote, "Nick Lachey bringing up Jessica Simpson continuously in love is blind, SEASON 1 2 & 3 is so tasteless lmao," and a third said, "say what you will about love is blind season 3 but nick lachey did not have to bring jessica simpson into this."
The former couple’s marriage was chronicled on the 2003-2005 MTV reality show "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica."
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Simpson later wrote about their marriage in her 2020 memoir "Open Book," alluding to the difficulties of navigating a new marriage while making a reality series.
"Nick loved the fact I was so strong in my faith and that I had this wide-eyed innocent approach to life," she wrote, according to US Weekly. "When he proposed in 2002, I said yes. We were young and pioneering our way through reality television, always mic’ed and always on. We worked, and we were great at it, but when it came time to being alone, we weren’t great at it anymore."
She called Lachey her "first love" and said she has no regrets about their marriage. "I was 22, and I had just pledged my life and destiny of this man. And I don’t regret it. Nick was meant to be my husband. No one else was supposed to have my virginity."
Likewise, Lachey said he was "happy" for Simpson in 2020 during an appearance on the "Today" show. "There’s definitely a mutual respect there, obviously it was a long time ago, and we’ve all moved on," he said, Us Weekly reported.
