So much for parting amicably… In this week’s issue, PEOPLE reports on the high-stakes divorce of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. Both sides trade charges as a struggle looms over the ex-couple’s money and property. Now that both sides have filed, “the only ugliness is if she has to pay him a lot of money,” says a Simpson pal. As long as they reach a “fair settlement,” counters a Lachey source, “there is no reason it should get nasty.”
With an estimated income of $35 million in 2005—earnings from her music, fledgling movie career and cosmetic, shoe and clothing lines—Jessica Simpson, 25, is by far the bigger earner of the two. (He made an estimated $5 million in ’05.) And according to court papers, he has no intention of waiving any rights—which by California law include half of all assets he and Simpson accumulated since they married in 2002 and found superstardom on Newlyweds. “It’s about the amount of success that was had by both partners as a result of a show based around their marriage,” the source tells PEOPLE. Countering Simpson’s request in her filing that he not receive alimony, his papers declared his intention to hold open the right to ask for spousal support—a move that “is totally standard,” says a Lachey confidante. As is his request for “miscellaneous jewelry and other personal effects,” says another source close to Lachey: “All he wants is his stuff.”
Of course, what constitutes his stuff is at the heart of proceedings one Lachey pal believes could become ugly. To those in Simpson’s camp, Lachey’s talk of spousal support seems a direct call to arms. “Jessica was surprised that he left the window open,” says a source close to her. “She was under the impression that he wasn’t going to want spousal support.” Instead, says the source, “some would argue that this is Nick’s chance to become really rich.”
According to a friend of Lachey’s, he is keeping his legal options open only as a negotiating technique. “He has no intention of ever receiving spousal support,” says the friend. Moreover, “the last thing he wants to do is to harm his wife. It was an extremely hurtful time in his life and in their lives and if this is what she chooses to do, to be divorced, then all he wants to do is to try and have a settlement that is fair so both of them can go on with their lives. He doesn’t want to drag this out and make it ugly in any way.”
One person sure to like the sound of that sentiment is Joe Simpson, who manages both Jessica and her sister Ashlee. According to one source, it was the elder Simpson who insisted Jessica not sign a prenuptial agreement with Lachey in 2002 when he, as a member of the boy band 98 Degrees, was the bigger star and earner. Today, that decision works in Lachey’s favor. And while Lachey and Simpson want to settle their divorce “quickly and privately,” says the source, Joe, who was recently with Jessica in Santa Fe, where she is currently filming the romantic comedy Employee of the Month, is overseeing his daughter’s divorce as closely as her career. “Joe’s tactic is to slow down the process” in the hopes of wearing Lachey down, says the source. “He wants to give Nick nothing.” However, a source in Simpson’s camp denies her father is involved, insisting, “Joe is not a lawyer. Joe has nothing to do with it.”
Either way, as lawyers work to sort out financial matters, Lachey and Simpson are left to work through matters of the heart. “They talk,” says one source. But as a friend of Lachey’s tells PEOPLE, the goodwill they both once expressed is strained: “To a point it’s amicable. Cautiously. They are not hanging out at dinner.”
Even though both camps say the two have “moved on,” they clearly are not entirely over each other. As recently as a few weeks ago, according to sources in both camps, the two talked about her displeasure over Lachey’s recent outings with Lizzie Arnold, whom he first dated before he and Simpson were married. “She was not happy that he hooked up with someone from his past,” says the source. “It made it difficult for her because she knew that girl.”
He, meanwhile, is badly bruised by reports of her with other men, especially allegations that she began a dalliance with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine when they were still married. The fact that she denies any romance—and he rebuffs his friends’ attempts to set him up, says a source, claiming “he’s not ready for a girlfriend”—does not ease the trouble now, legal or personal. “He still loves her a great deal,” says Lachey’s friend. “Filing for divorce was a decision she made. It breaks his heart that he couldn’t make her happy.”
