‘Wish people didn’t see’: Cody Simpson’s raw confession after rough year in the spotlight

Exclusive: Cody Simpson has had 15 years to get used to being the most famous person in the room, but he still pauses to introduce himself to every crew member before sitting down for an exclusive interview with nine.com.au.

Outside, the queue of fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Australia’s golden boy is growing, but cloistered between the bookshelves at Dymocks Sydney it’s easy to mistake him for a normal 29-year-old bloke from the Gold Coast.

Sometimes Simpson wishes it were true.

“Doing something like music or entertainment, it’s a public facing job. You have to accept people are going to see your highs, and people are going to see your lows,” he told nine.com.au.

“It’s just it’s something I’ve been accustomed to and adjusted to since I was out of middle school, really, so I don’t know any different. But there are times where you go, ‘I wish people didn’t see [that].’”

Like when he missed out on qualifying for the Paris Olympics, or split from longtime girlfriend Emma McKeon? Simpson had something more mundane in mind.

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“Other people get to delete their Facebook pictures from when they were 14. Mine are unfortunately on the internet forever,” he joked.

“That’s just part of the job. I don’t get to delete the embarrassing stuff and just curate it. It’s all there.”

None of that seemed to faze the crowd waiting to meet him at the midnight release of Sarah J Maas’ latest romantasy novel A Court of Splintered Harmony, which Simpson recently revealed as the second pick for his new book club.

Though the book was the focus of the event hosted by Dymocks and Baileys on Monday, Simpson was the star of the show, donning a pair of plastic elf ears and posing for selfies with fans before he read the opening lines at midnight.

He seemed at ease in the crowd, a credit to his effort to maintain some sense of normalcy in his own life over the last decade.

Simpson exploded onto the global stage as a teenager, made his acting debut at 17, released three solo albums before he turned 20, and represented Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Some in his position would have let it all go to their heads; Simpson was determined not to.

“I’ve had friends that have been in a similar position to me who have gone the other way, and pushed further into detachment from what I consider a normal life,” he said.

“I love how unique my life is [and] if I could do it again, I’d do it the same way. But I try to keep some measure of normalcy in my life. It takes effort, but I don’t feel like I’ve I lost that [normalcy] too much. Or if I did, I was able to reclaim it.”

It helps that he’s been able to take time away from spotlight, though it hasn’t always been voluntary.

This year he discovered a “serious haemorrhage” on one of his vocal cords that required surgery and months of vocal rest, and dislocated his knee while rehearsing for a music video.

Simpson made a triumphant return at the NFL Melbourne game last month but conceded it’s been a “rough year”.

He’s hoping 2027 will be better, starting with his 30th birthday in January.

“I feel really good about going into my 30s, knowing exactly what I want for that decade, and feeling a little less chaotic than I did 10 years ago,” he said, adding that music will be his primary focus.

“I’m glad I got the monkey off my back with my swimming and side-quested pretty hard through my 20s, so going into my 30s I feel way more settled.

“My life feels like simpler now because I know I want to play music, and I know that’s the thing I want to do until I’m an old man. I was able to accomplish the goals that I had in my 20s ... and now I can move forward.”

Another goal is to grow his book club, which he launched last week with a moody video of him reading the first pick, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

Most of his 4.8 million Instagram followers were hooked, but a few joked the clip felt reminiscent of the “performative male reader” stereotype.

Simpson got a good laugh out of that comparison.

“If I’m out with a book in my pocket, it’s because I’m actually reading the book not because I want to be seen with the book,” he said.

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“And if that is an entryway into someone actually getting into books, even if they just want to be seen to be into books, that is still better than nothing.”

He’s broadening his own literary horizons for the book club too.

This month, Simpson started reading the first book in Sarah J. Maas’ romantic fantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses to prepare for the sixth novel, which hit shelves on Monday and will be his next book club selection.

It marks his first foray into romance genre, but Simpson admitted he’s always had a soft spot for romantic films like Notting Hill.

The Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts flick about an actress falling in love with a bookstore owner is one of his all-time favourites, though he can’t really relate to the ‘celebrity falls for normal person’ plot given his string of famous exes.

“People love to fantasise and romanticise those things,” Simpson said.

“I’ve probably not had that same kind of experience in real life, but it’s a popular story and I think that it’s something that people like to dream about.”

Just don’t expect sexy sport romances like Heated Rivalry and Off Campus to make it onto Simpson’s book club list; the former competitive swimmer can’t take them seriously, no matter how popular they get. They’re just not realistic.

“Sorry to burst the bubble!”