$16m home Jessica Simpson risked to save brand

PHOTO: Jessica Simpson talks about how she considered “borrowing against her homes” during a two-year battle to buy back her billion-dollar fashion brand. Pictures: BusinessWeek/WireImage/Realtor.com

Jessica Simpson wanted her billion-dollar fashion brand back, and she considered “borrowing against her homes,” to do it.

In a lengthy interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, the former singer turned business mogul revealed the desperate measures she took to salvage her fashion empire.

“Even if I have to go live in a little, tiny place in Ireland, I will,” Simpson, 41, explained.

The decision to take back her company came about during an already dramatic period in her life.

In 2019, while 34 weeks pregnant with her third child, Simpson was hospitalised with severe bronchitis as her daughter’s status began to deteriorate, The Post reports.

“Her oxygen levels were dropping. I couldn’t breathe,” said Simpson, who was hooked up an oxygen machine. Once her and her daughter’s health stabilised, it was time to turn her attention to the health of her empire.

The mansion spans more than 1000 sqm. Picture: Realtor.com

The main foyer has floor-to-ceiling windows and a grand staircase. Picture: Wire/Realtor.com

The company she started in 2005, the Jessica Simpson Collection, had shot to $1 billion in sales in 2014, but in the years since, was slipping into financial ruin.

Her hospital-bed decision to take back control of the company would be the start of a two-year battle with Sequential Brands Group Inc., which had purchased a majority of the company in 2015, leaving Simpson and her mum, Tina, with a minority stake of 37.5%.