Nick Lachey Reacts to Awkward Run-in With Ex-Wife Jessica Simpson in Rare Comment 20 Years After Messy Divorce

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson accidentally crossed paths 20 years after their split.

On the Wednesday, May 13, episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the singer, 52, revealed he ran into his ex-wife during a recent flight to Hawaii.

Lachey was with his wife, Vanessa Lachey, and three kids, while Simpson was with her mother, three kids and estranged husband Eric Johnson.

“It was strangely OK,” the musician said. “You know, it’s been 20 years, and so we hadn’t seen each other in those 20 years and then spent six and a half hours on a flight to Hawaii together. When I say ‘spent,’ [I mean] in the same vicinity. Everyone was very cordial, very respectful. It was honestly…it was fine.”

A source previously confirmed in April that the exes shared a flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii together.

“They actually did say hello, and it was a nice, cordial conversation,” the insider dished at the time.

Another report initially alleged that the run-in was “awkward,” and the stars “went out of their way to avoid each other the entire time.” Indeed, an eyewitness reportedly told TMZ that “Nick turned bright red when he realized Jessica was on board…and from that moment on, there was zero interaction.” However, the songwriter’s recollection of the reunion seemed to be amicable.

Jessica, 45, and Nick tied the knot in October 2002 and divorced in June 2006.

In her memoir Open Book, the fashion designer detailed their whirlwind romance.

“Nick loved the fact I was so strong in my faith and that I had this wide-eyed innocent approach to life,” she wrote in the 2020 book. “When he proposed in 2002, I said yes. We were young and pioneering our way through reality television, always miked 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 continued: “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.”

While Jessica and Nick were married, she reportedly had an emotional affair with Johnny Knoxville.

“We wrote these flowery love letters back and forth, often at night with Nick passed out in the bed next to me,” she wrote in her memoir. “We talked about music, and I would listen to Johnny Cash songs he suggested just to feel like we were still together. … It’s like Johnny and I were prison pen pals, two people who wanted too much to be with each other but were kept apart — by bars, by our stars, by our respective spouses.”