Jessica Simpson tells Elle magazine seeing Nick Lachey with another woman after their split was painful.

"Oh, it hurt me," Simpson tells Elle in its March issue. "Two
or three weeks later? Yeah, I'd say it kind of hurt me."

(After their November 2005 separation, her ex was photographed with Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavallari. He's now dating MTV's Vanessa Minnillo.)

But Simpson, 26, says she's still in touch with Lachey, 33. "He's so much a part of my life, how could I not be? Any guy who's going to be with me from this day forward has to understand that."

She won't say whether that guy could be John Mayer, 29, with whom she's been linked off and on since the summer.

"I want to tell you everything, but I have to sew my lips together," she says. "It's hurt me in the past." (Still, a glimpse of her e-mail inbox reveals a block of about
10 e-mails from Mayer, including one with the subject line, "Texas girl.")

When the interviewer comments, "I feel that with this new privacy of
yours, I'm going to wake up one morning, pick up the paper and read ..." Simpson
interjects: "That I'm married! Maybe."

Asked if she's "totally in love right now," Simpson grins and says, "I didn't say yes."

Let's hope Jess can find love again and keep it some-what safe from the public eye...

Source: People