Jessica Simpson says being body-shamed for performing in her so-called “mom jeans” was devastating.

The singer who now runs a billion dollar fashion company opened up on the Today show about performing in high-waisted jeans at a January 2009 chili cook-off and being “taken down” for it.

View photos Jessica Simpson's outfit at the 99.9 Kiss Country Chili Cook-Off in Pembroke Pines, Fla, in 2009 made headlines — and not the good kind. (Photo: Logan Fazio/Getty Images) More

"This picture that circulated and went worldwide broke my heart,” Simpson, 39, admitted on Tuesday’s Today show. “Not the picture necessarily, but the caption. Like, all the captions — and it was viral. I was like: Wait a second. I’m so confused.”

“This picture that circulated and went worldwide broke my heart,” Jessica Simpson says about photos of her with body-shaming captions that went viral online when she was a size 4 pic.twitter.com/HH83Dcbt7Q — TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 4, 2020

While the Dukes of Hazzard star had felt good about herself while she performed onstage in her size 4 — yes 4 — jeans, seeing the hateful comments ridiculing her body was devastating. (Some headlines at the time: “Jumbo Jessica Simpson Packin’ on the Pounds in Photos” and “Jessica Simpson: This Is How She Rolls.”)

"I was taken down by the world," said Simpson, who had been praised just a few years earlier for how she looked in her Daisy Dukes.

Simpson devoted a chapter of her memoir, Open Book, which is out today, to the hurtful experience. She titled it “Death by Mom Jeans” and wrote that she felt bad for her boyfriend at the time, former NFL quarterback Tony Romo. (One headline said: “Jessica Simpson packs it in for Tony Romo.”)

“I did [feel bad for Tony],” Simpson admitted. “I think that comes from other relationships. Tony never made me feel that way. I always felt confident when I was with Tony.” (Simpson and Romo split in June of that year — after Romo saw a text from Simpson’s ex-boyfriend John Mayer sent her.)

View photos Jessica Simpson celebrating her birthday with Tony Romo in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images) More

Simpson said the incident — and similar ones — contributed to her drinking, which she finally sought treatment for in 2017. She would drink to block out the pain. Her weight was already a source of trauma for her after a record executive told her, when she was 17, that she would have to drop 15 pounds, to get to 103, to sign a record deal. (She did, using diet pills, and kept using them for two decades.)

Simpson also spoke about another painful moment in the spotlight: When she was set to sing “9 to 5” at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to icon Dolly Parton in 2006 and she had to stop her performance because she forgot the words.