Nick Lachey Looks Back on Surprise Success of Reality Show with Ex-Wife Jessica Simpson

The 51-year-old sat down in a new interview for Richer Lives where he made some rare comments about the MTV series that brought iconic pop culture moments like, "Is this chicken what I have or is this fish?"

"Newlyweds obviously became a huge reality show," Lachey said. "The only one that had come out before that was The Osbournes, which was also a massive show. But that show was created as a vehicle to promote music."

The series ran from 2003 to 2005, with the stars originally signing on as a way to maybe boost awareness of upcoming albums they each had at the time.

"You know, my ex-wife had an album coming out, [I] had an album coming out, I'll do a little six-episode thing to promote the album," Lachey explained.

"We had no idea it was going to take on this other life of being this reality fly-on-the-wall type of show. So that was totally unexpected."

As reality television was still finding its legs in the pop culture world in the early aughts, the pair had to get "used" to the crew and strangers being in their space.

"I remember at first they were like, 'Don't talk to the crew. They're a fly on the wall!' And I was like, 'Guys, if this is ever going to work, that's just not how I'm wired. You're not going to be in my house and watch my every move and we're not going to talk to each other. We got to get past that right now,'" he recalled.

"So I actually came to really love the crew. I remember crying the day we shut down because you develop relationships with them. They really became [a] family."

However, Lachey and Simpson's marriage didn't last too long after the series ended. Lachey and Simpson divorced in 2006, one year after MTV aired Newlyweds' third and final season.

Looking back, the 98 Degrees star said the series opened him up to a whole new fan base.

"The beautiful thing about reality TV is, when you’re in a boy band, people just know you as Nick from 98 Degrees. It’s specifically a pretty female audience," Lachey said.

"What reality TV did for me is it allowed me to introduce myself as Nick Lachey, the person, to the world, and even guys around me [were like], 'He's kind of cool. I'd have a beer with that guy.' It allowed me to become very comfortable being myself," he revealed.

While his marriage to Simpson didn't last, Lachey later connected with Vanessa Lachey and they've been happily married for nearly 14 years.

As for what Lachey suggests for a happy relationship -- don't bring your work home! Ironically, the pair also work together on TV, co-hosting the Netflix dating show Love is Blind.

"I think the best thing you can do is not bring your work home with you. Which is tricky when you work with your spouse," Lachey said elsewhere in the episode. "I think we do a really good job of doing that, for the most part, but it's not easy working with your spouse sometimes."

"Sometimes you show up for work and there's an argument at home that you brought with you to work and you don't want that to bleed over. And sometimes there’s arguments at work that bleed over," he explained.

Nick and Vanessa are parents to sons Camden, 12, and Phoenix, 8, and daughter Brooklyn, 10.