Jessica Simpson + Nick Lachey Sex Tape

Who? American pop singers, reality TV newlyweds.

Real? No.

There have been two outbreaks of the Jessica Simpson – Nick Lachey sex tape rumor. Both rumors were completely bogus.

In January 2004, some fly-by-night website claimed to have a 45-minute sex tape of the couple. The website claimed the footage consisted of outtakes of their MTV reality show Newlyweds, recorded automatically by motion sensor-activated cameras in their bedroom.

An anonymous friend supposedly told a tabloid reporter that Simpson was furious and distraught. “She told me it’s definitely not them and it must be look-alikes. When she heard about the tape, she told me she was so embarrassed that she broke down and cried. Jessica called her close family members, including her father – who is a minister – to warn them about the website’s claims before they heard about it on the news. She told me it was the toughest thing she’s every had to do.”

Needless to say, no such video ever circulated, and it’s virtually certain that it never existed.

In July 2008, British tabloid Daily Sport published a story about a Jessica Simpson – Nick Lachey sex tape that might be released soon. (The story is not online at the Daily Sport site, but several other news sources cite the original article.) If the rumor panned out, this would be one of the biggest celebrity sex tapes of all time. However, Daily Sport is a highly unreliable source, known to publish the flimsiest of rumors and occasionally just make stuff up.

According to second-hand accounts, Daily Sport claimed that Internet Entertainment Group, the same company that released the Pamela Anderson – Tommy Lee sex tape back in the late 90s, had acquired the Jessica Simpson – Nick Lachey sex tape. IEG was allegedly threatening to release the video unless Jessica agreed to pay a large amount of money for the rights. An anonymous source is quoted as saying, “Jessica is horrified her name and ‘sex tape’ are being mentioned in the same sentence. She’s always been a girl of high morals and principles.”

There’s one very big discrepancy in this story. Internet Entertainment Group (IEG) has been defunct since 2001, when founder Seth Warshavsky fled to Thailand.

Again, this video never circulated, and it’s virtually certain that it never existed.