Congrats, Papa Joe (Simpson) ...

Joe Simpson was showing me his mobile: a photo of an adorable little boy was filling the screen. "Daphne, meet my grandson, Ashley's son ..." said a proud Joe. He looked so emotional, that I gave him a big hug, before leaving.


There is a big misconception about Joe, the father of Jessica and Ashley Simpson. While Hollywood and most of the media have described him as a control-freak, self-serving dad-manager, I know a different Joe.


We met at the worst time for his older daughter Jessica. The tabloids were featuring unflattering photos of her, screaming that her then boyfriend Tony Romo, "dumbed her!" The media suggested, that Jessica was OVER-weight. So was her singing career - OVER.


Joe was having breakfast with me. He needed to offload. It was 2 hours of almost a monologue. In the midst of the nightmeatish press about his daughter (and him!), he asked me about my opinion: "Daphne,  what do you think about building fashion accessories around Jessica?"


Apparently - the accessories, she had had on her names, were produced by others. She had just given her name, and that business dissolved for different reasons. My gut feeling told me that beautiful Jessica would engage women to wear her cloths and accessories, because she was so human: fighting her carvings to eat, falling in love with the wrong guys (the John Mayer nightmare) ...


A year later - Joe and I were sitting at my hotel in L.A. The fashion industry he had created, in 12 months, for his daughter and his wife Tina had become a mega success. It catered to every woman, every size, in affordable prices. I congratulated him for rumored half a billion dollars turn around.  Joe corrected me: "Daphne, three quarters of a billion ..." It had grown to one million ever since.


Joe was talking about his two daughters as a proud - sometimes painful - dad. I asked him about Ashley's career.  It was then, when he showed me the photo of his grandchild, and said tenderly: "Ashley prefers these days ...She just want to raise her child ...So we focus on Jessica's career now, and let Ashley be a mom .."


Despite his  image in the media as an ambitious manager, I could tell, he was thinking about Jessica. Telling me more about how her public divorce made him sad, protective: "I just want her to be happy ..."


And Papa Joe got what he wanted for his little girl: Money, success, even revenge ...
And happiness.

* Read about the joy of being a hands on mother, in my book  "My Benazir"  (www.daphnebarak.com)