Two Decades Later: Nick and Jessica Share a Flight, Keep It Civil

Six and a half hours. That’s how long Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson found themselves in the same airspace last week, and honestly? It went better than anyone might’ve expected.

The former couple — who called it quits nearly two decades ago — crossed paths on a flight to Hawaii, and Nick opened up about the encounter on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Wednesday, May 13. The vibe was surprisingly mature.“It was strangely OK,”Nick, 52, told host Andy Cohen, emphasizing that he and his current wife, Vanessa Lachey, 45, maintained cordial distance from Jessica, 45, her estranged husband Eric Johnson, and her three children throughout the journey.“Everyone was very cordial, very respectful,”he said.“It was honestly … it was fine.”

That’s a long way from where things stood in the early 2000s. Nick and Jessica were married from 2002 to 2006 — the years when MTV’s Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica made them tabloid royalty and reality TV pioneers. They separated in 2005, finalized their divorce the following year, and for two decades kept their distance. Until now.

In her 2020 memoir, Open Book, Jessica reflected on what went wrong. She wrote about being young — only 22 when they got engaged — and finding that while they were great at the performance of marriage (“always miked and always on”), they struggled when it came to being alone. The memoir also revealed her emotional affair with Dukes of Hazzard costar Johnny Knoxville, which she described with poetic pain: they exchanged love letters at night while her husband slept, bonding over music and longing in a way that felt forbidden and impossible.

Nick has since moved forward too. In December 2024, he spoke on Netflix’s The Ultimatum season 3 about the scars divorce leaves behind, offering contestants the wisdom that comes from surviving heartbreak:“Don’t let your past define your future.”He’s built a life with Vanessa and their three children.

The Hawaii flight feels like a quiet punctuation mark on a chapter that defined early 2000s pop culture. Not everything needs to be dramatic or painful — sometimes two people who loved each other, grew apart, and moved on can simply share an airplane ride with grace. That’s its own kind of ending.