Nick & Jessica's Troubled Year

See the highs and lows of PEOPLE.com's Most Fascinating Couple of 2005. By Emily Fromm

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OCT. 15/OCT. 26

As their Oct. 26 three-year anniversary approached, the couple were often apart: Lachey hit Las Vegas with brother Drew for the uBid for Hurricane Relief Charity Auction (Simpson "had prior commitments" in L.A., he said); Simpson spent the big day in Nairobi, Kenya, acting as a goodwill ambassador for the organization Operation Smile. "I needed to escape," she told PEOPLE.