Jessica Simpson Responds to Rumors About a $1K-a-Week Tanning Habit

Jessica Simpson has gotten used to gossipers gossiping about her private life. And while the singer/actress/fashion designer has learned to expertly brush off the tabloid dirt off her shoulder over the years, one tall tale that has had long legs is the rumor that she used to spend $1,000 a week to keep her skin perfectly tan.

Now the 45-year-old mother of three has finally putting those whispers to rest in an ELLE magazine interview in which she opened up about her skin routine.

Texas-bred Simpson said she has always been a “sun lover,” recalling that she frequently spent her July birthdays in a pool. “My buns were always tan,” she said, recalling not really wearing any sunscreen in her younger days. Back then, her routine was like that of many young women her age: Sun-In and lemon juice to make her hair as blonde as possible and, yikes, Crisco on her skin to really get that crispy finish.

“I had really great moments of worshipping the sun,” she told the magazine, noting that these days she’s constantly spraying herself and her kids down with sunscreen when they go outside despite her old habits, because she’s realized the danger of not properly protecting her epidermis.

Okay, but what about those persistent four-digit-a-week tanning rumors?

“No, $1,000? Gosh. I’d rather have lain out in the sun,” she said. “Maybe it depends if you’re going to factor in a vacation with that budget.” She explained that when she was playing Daisy Duke in the 2005 The Dukes of Hazzard movie she had to be tan during the entire four-month shoot where she was “damn near naked the whole time” in Duke’s signature crop tops, bikinis and signature bun-bearing shorts.

“The only way to be confident then when shooting was to spray it, and do body makeup,” she confirmed. “But I also didn’t want it to be too orange, so I had to have a base tan. It was all thought out. I used to be the type of person that would put an SPF 15 on my stomach, but I would put an SPF 50 on my knees because I didn’t want them to wrinkle. I would do that math in my head.”

Don’t get her wrong, she still loves a good tan, saying that she and her family are gearing up for spring break and she’s sure her son, Ace Knute, 12, will try to escape when she comes at him with the sunscreen, though daughters Maxwell Drew, 14, and Birdie Mae, 6, are “pretty good” about slathering lotion on. “I still like the tan, trust me, but there are ways to go about it,” she said. “My daughter teaches me more about skin care than I could ever teach her. Maxwell is 14 and she knows about skin. We challenge each other on water drinking, and we fill each other in on what masks to wear, and how to make your skin dewy and everything.”

These days a vacation means getting tan in a “healthy way,” since Simpson is into laying around with friends and, she joked, flipping like a “rotisserie chicken.” Unlike the olden days, though, now she and her pals take turns spraying each other down, since she is not one of those people who worried about staying out of the sun to avoid wrinkles. “It just happens and is a part of life,” she said.

Simpson was back in public this week when she made a rare appearance on stage at The Masked Singer to give the final clue before season 14’s winner was revealed as her younger sister, Ashlee Simpson. The singer released the five-song country-leaning EP Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1 last year and is gearing up to hit the road for a string of dates next month, beginning at the Hard Rock Live in Cantoosa, Okla. on May 23.