Vanessa Lachey is defending her reaction to an awkward interview moment on the Today show.
On Monday (February 3), Nick and Vanessa Lachey appeared on the Today show to talk about their new dating show, Love Is Blind, and the interview came around to Nick’s ex-wife, Jessica Simpson, who recently released her memoir, Open Book.
As a refresher, Nick and Jessica were married from 2002 to 2006. They’ve both since moved on – Nick wed Vanessa in 2011 and now share three children together; Jessica tied the knot with Eric Johnson in 2014 and have three children as well.
During the interview, host Hoda Kotb asked about a gift that the couple supposedly sent Jessica.
“I interviewed Jessica for her book, Open Book, and she talked about how she has her life with her husband and children, she was really, really happy for y’all. She kept saying like ‘they sent me something beautiful when, you know, we had our children, etc, etc,” Hoda began, then talked about some of the shocking revelations that Jessica shared in her memoir – like her drinking problem and being sexually abused as a child – and asked if Nick knew about these.
“I’ll be honest, I obviously haven’t read the book, so I don’t know what she said or what she revealed there,” Nick said. “But certainly happy for her in her life and I know she is happy for us. There is definitely a mutual respect there.”
“Obviously it was a long time ago and we’ve all moved on,” he added.
Then Vanessa fully circled back to Hoda’s initial statement and was all like, “I feel bad. I’m sorry, but you said somebody sent her….. It wasn’t us.”
A beat later, Nick asked Vanessa, “What’d you send?”
And Vanessa responded, “I didn’t! I don’t know her address. But thank you, whoever sent it from us!”
Some Twitter users began accusing her of throwing shade on Today show hosts and even Jessica – others also said that her response to the whole Jessica Simpson issue was totally unnecessary. And Vanessa is sharing why she reacted the way she did during the interview.
“Ohhh shade! That would be fun and scandalous! No shade though, haha,” she wrote in response to one Twitter user who accused her of “tossing shade” at Jessica. “Just wanting to clear the incorrect statement up. That’s all.”
“Just didn’t want to take credit for something we didn’t do. That’s all. Seems weird to ignore sending a big beautiful gift basket and taking that credit,” she told another with a similar sentiment.
When one person said, “U dont call out the host on live TV 2 look or feel important. @NickLachey embarrassed👍🏼,” she replied, “Totally hear you. But also, you make sure you do your research and state facts and ask appropriate questions as the host… don’t you think. The statement wasn’t true, so I was simply clearing that up. But definitely a beautiful sentiment if it was.”
She also expressed that “I think it’s weird accepting credit for something you didn’t do or give. Even weirder to bring up something so random. Just giving facts. Wanted to make sure we were truthful. 🥰”
One person called her reaction during the interview “10000% not necessary… and super awkward.” And Vanessa shot back, “Should I have pretended to give it? Dang. Can we get a do over and I will tell them it was big beautiful basket. ;-). Kidding, sorry you think that, just wanted to be truthful. That’s all. But the gift sounds lovely!”
But there were others who agreed with Vanessa’s clarification of the whole gift-sending issue.
“Why the heck should @VanessaLachey have to sit there and let false info pass by though?! It wasn’t exactly in a private conversation if she had said nothing it would have been printed everywhere that they had sent something and maybe given the history she isn’t ok with that!” one fan wrote.
“Ahhh hah! Smart!” Vanessa replied. “And yes! We just wanted to clear the air. That’s all. Trust me! If I sent something, I’d take credit! 🥰”
“People need to chill. What you said on the show was perfectly fine, but people just want to nitpick the hell out of everything. Keep doing your thang, girl. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽,” another tweeted in support.
