John Mayer has had a lot of high-profile romances, but none have been more high-profile than his flings with Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston. Though the relationships didn’t last long, they left a lasting impression on the musician. There couldn’t be two more different ladies, however, and the way Mayer recalls his romances with them reveals exactly how he viewed them.
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After her divorce from Nick Lachey in 2005, Simpson struck up a romance with Mayer. In a controversial 2010 interview with Playboy, Mayer was extremely candid about how he felt about the pop star turned fashion mogul. “That girl, for me, is a drug,” Mayer admitted. “And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me.” When the interviewer asked if that meant he was addicted to Simpson, Mayer answered, “Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm.”
One person who didn’t appreciate this level of candor was Simpson herself. Though the interview came out after their relationship was over, and Simpson was a few months away from officially dating her now-husband Eric Johnson, Mayer’s view of her still stung. In her upcoming memoir, Open Book, Simpson revealed how her former lover’s words, specifically him calling her “sexual napalm,” had hurt her. “He thought that was what I wanted to be called,” Simpson wrote, via People. “I was floored and embarrassed that my grandmother was actually gonna read that.” The interview gave Simpson the gumption she needed to walk away from the relationship for good.
John Mayer spoke about his other ex differently
Surprisingly, when it came to Mayer’s other former paramour, Aniston, the “Your Body Is A Wonderland” singer was far more respectful. Just after he’d finished speaking about Simpson, Mayer abruptly interrupted the interviewer’s next question to say, “I love Jen so much that I’m now thinking about how bad I would feel if she read this and was like, ‘Why are you putting me in an article where you’re talking about someone else? I don’t want to be in your lineage of kiss-and-tells.'”
Earlier in the interview, Mayer described Aniston as “the most communicative, sweetest, kindest person.” Ultimately, however, Mayer and Aniston chose to end the relationship. Mayer hinted that the final break up had to do with their age differences. “I’ll always be sorry that it didn’t last,” he said. “In some ways I wish I could be with her. But I can’t change the fact that I need to be 32.”
Though Aniston and Mayer have been officially broken up since 2009, that doesn’t stop tabloids from publishing stories that claim otherwise. In March 2019, almost a full decade after their breakup, OK! reported that Aniston was casually dating both Brad Pitt and Mayer at the same time. Gossip Cop checked in with Aniston’s rep, who was authorized to speak on her behalf. We were assured that Aniston was not dating either her ex-husband or her ex-boyfriend.