Jessica Simpson Says She Got Back Together with John Mayer 'Nine Times'

Jessica Simpson is opening up about her turbulent relationship with John Mayer.

Speaking to the TODAY show in a segment set to air Feb. 4, Simpson spoke to host Hoda Kotb and shared that she and Mayer, who met back in 2005, had a challenging relationship.

“We were great at intimacy. We were great at loving each other,” she shared. That was easy, but the relationship was very complex. And it was always on-again, off-again. On-again, off-again. And I went back close to nine times.”

Simpson, 39, spoke exclusively to PEOPLE and revealed that her relationship with Mayer had “control” over her.

“He loved me in the way that he could and I loved that love for a very long time,” she said of Mayer. “Too long. And I went back and forth with it for a long time. But it did control me.”

Their relationship eventually came to an end in 2010 after Mayer referred to Simpson as “sexual napalm” during an interview with Playboy. The “Gravity” crooner has since publicly apologized, but Simpson is not shying away from speaking on how that whole experience made her feel.

“He thought that was what I wanted to be called. I was floored and embarrassed that my grandmother was actually gonna read that,” Simpson stated. “A woman and how they are in bed is not something that is ever talked about. It was shocking.”

“I erased his number. He made it easy for me to walk away,” she also shared.

Now married to former NFL player Eric Johnson and the mother of three kids — daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 6, and baby girl Birdie, 10 months — Simpson is ready for this next chapter of her life.

In the past few years, the “With You” songstress began writing music again, with new songs set to be released alongside the audio book she narrated of her new memoir, Open Book.

Simpson hopes both her words and her music will help others who’ve been through difficulties.

“I’ve never felt more inspired,” she said. “There is power in the truth.”