NICK LACHEY certainly has had a busy year. A member of the late-90s boy band 98 Degrees, Nick married Jessica Simpson in October 2002 and lived the first year of marriage in the crazy fishbowl that is their hit MTV reality show, Newlyweds. With the show now taping its second season, he has released his first solo album, SoulO. Nick recently sat down with Star to give the lowdown on his future, his relationship with Jessica -- and why he's the luckiest guy on the planet.

Q: People are fascinated that Jessica made you wait two years, until you were married, to have sex.

A: I wish it were only two. It was three.

Q: And you were faithful the entire time?

A: Uh, yeah. Let me give you the exclusive scoop: I wasn't with her because I wanted to sleep with her. If that was the case, I would have been gone early on. I fell in love with her for many other reasons. I was very much dedicated to her and very faithful to her.

Q: You've said you'd never even seen her naked before you got married?

A: I'm not talking about this stuff. It's not anybody's business.

Q: You seem like a pretty down-to-earth, normal guy. How has the tremendous success of the TV show affected you?

A: It's been surreal. Who knew it would happen like this? The way it's exploded is shocking.

Q: Everywhere you look, it seems either you or Jessica are on a magazine cover or on TV. Are you concerned about being overexposed?

A: I've always said that's a good problem to have. We're certainly enjoying ourselves.

Q: Where is Jessica today? Do you actually have separate lives?

A: She's at a photo shoot and I'm riding solo. We both have our own things going on. She's been promoting and touring on the road, and I haven't been with her at all during that. We definitely have a lot of things happening that don't involve one another.

Q: Sometimes you guys seem to get really annoyed at each other. Are you concealing any issues?

A: We get a kick out of reading in magazines, "They'll never last. He turned away from her at a moment in that particular episode." That's pretty superficial. We constantly remind each other it's just a show.

Q: What did you think of Jessica's Rolling Stone "Housewife of the Year" cover?