Nicole Richie initially gained notoriety when she appeared on the reality show The Simple
Life opposite fellow socialite and then-BFF Paris Hilton. Richie retreated from the limelight
in the latter stages of her career, but has had an incredible transformation behind the
scenes. Here's a peek.
As a celebrity kid, Nicole Richie's childhood was far from typical, but to her it was pretty
normal. She told The Telegraph:
"My childhood was my childhood. I don't have another one to compare it to."
Initially fostered by Lionel Richie and Brenda Harvey, Nicole Richie was formally adopted
by the couple at age nine. Her biological parents worked with the singer but were, quote,
"unable to support her."
Lionel Richie toured a lot when Nicole was young but even though the "Hello" hitmaker
expresses guilt over being an absent father, she doesn't blame him. She stated:
"Looking back, I think I had a wonderful childhood."
As for those early red carpet exposures, in which the little girl would often be dressed
identically to her mother, Richie cringes at the memories, embarrassed that the photos
will live on forever.
Although she was brought up in a celebrity family and eventually went on to pursue acting,
Nicole Richie told Vanity Fair in 2006:
"I never wanted to be on television; I always wanted to be a singer. I always wanted to
do Broadway."
Richie's other ambitions were even less TV-oriented, with family friend Quincy Jones revealing
to People that:
"When she was younger she worked eight hours a day for eight years to become an Olympic
figure skater."
Richie even set her sites on ballet for a time. Reflecting on the hit track "Ballerina
Girl", Lionel stated to NBC News in 2004:
"I would go to her little ballet classes…I would go and I came home and just writing
that song was just her song."
Nicole Richie grew up with most everything at her fingertips which sometimes meant nothing
was off limits. The reality star admitted that she started doing drugs as a teenager
to People in 2007 and revealed:
"I kind of took matters into my own hands and was creating drama in a very dangerous
way. I think I was just bored, and I had seen everything, especially when you're young,
you just want more."
Richie elaborated in an interview with ABC News in 2008, revealing how her addiction
began gradually with alcohol and marijuana, but by 14 or 15 she, quote, "started getting
into cocaine." At 19, Richie was hooked on heroin. Looking back, she stated:
"I was pretty out of control. And considering the fact that I probably don't remember half
of what happened to me, I can only imagine how out of control I was."
When entering her 20s, already dependent on hard drugs to survive, Nicole Richie realized
something needed to change drastically. She told People it was a simple realization of
knowing:
"...this isn't the life…this was heroin."
The star was caught and charged with possession, something Richie's father told NBC News was
exactly the kind of wake-up call required to set her straight. In a move of solidarity,
when Richie admitted to her parents she needed help, they agreed to all check in to rehab
together. Lionel explained simply:
"I wanted her to understand that this is not her problem alone. This is a family problem."
Richie admitted to Vanity Fair that as a teen she didn't feel bad about all the hurt she'd
caused her parents. But rehab put everything into perspective.
"I can stand here now and look back on that time and know that at that time I really needed,
I...I couldn't have a place to hide."
Their time in treatment together changed the entire family dynamic. Her parents hadn't
spoken for a long time leading up to that point, but since then, all three parties have
been able to communicate effectively. Richie credits that time with bridging the gap between
them.
The Simple Life was the prototypical reality show, setting the stage for our most beloved
reality TV faves. Richie's father told NBC News what audiences saw on TV was 100 percent
real, advising:
"The joke is that they actually put a show around their everyday living…We survive
their antics on a daily basis."
Nicole told Entertainment Weekly in 2020:
"We were 20 or 21 when we did [the show]. It was like backpacking through Europe: something
you do in your twenties. If I could say something to my younger self, I'd be like, 'Do it, because
when else are you going to be able to go and do that?' That's what your twenties are for!"
Richie said in an Oprah Winfrey interview that she has no regrets about doing the show
because it helped mold her into a stronger person.
"I really don't have any regrets in life, even the mistakes, the drugs, everything because
it made me who I am today."
At nearly 26 years old, Nicole Richie had been arrested four times, gone to rehab on
multiple occasions and was awaiting minimal jail time before acknowledging the time for
change was now or never. Less than a year into her relationship with soon-to-be husband
Joel Madden, and with her first child on the way, Richie was on the precipice of her whole
life being forever altered whether she liked it or not. And she embraced it. She stated
in an interview with ABC News:
"Change is all about making a decision to change, and you have to start somewhere...I've
made the decision to not let myself go...and I'm working toward that."
Richie was focused on her unborn child and tried to set a good example. As the expectant
mother admitted to ABC News:
"It's been a pattern in my life, when I get in trouble, I try to get out of it. And the
difference is, that I'm a mother now and I'm not only thinking about myself."
Though Nicole Richie overcame her addiction, becoming a role model or a spokesperson for
sobriety and clean living was never on her to-do list. As she explained to Vanity Fair,
speaking out would put a lot of pressure on her and that she still considers herself a
work in progress. She said:
"For me to tell other people what to do in their lives is something I'm not really fit
to do…I'm not 'there' yet. I don't know whether I'll ever be 'there.'"
Her outlook changed over time and being a parent drove her to try harder. She admitted
to ABC News:
"I did not want to be a role model. And because I didn't want to be, I really fought it. And
whenever I made mistakes, at times I didn't even really feel bad for them."
But as she prepared to be a mother, Richie understood the necessity of putting her best
foot forward.
There was a time when the tabloid press obsessed over Nicole Richie's weight, diagnosing her
with an eating disorder purely based on speculation. As a 2010 profile in Marie Claire explained,
Richie had actually been diagnosed as hypoglycemic, meaning that it was much harder for her to
gain weight. The scrutiny over her weight was so intense that she conducted a Vanity
Fair interview along with her doctor in 2006 to reassure the media that she was getting
treatment for whatever perceived weight issues she had. Unfortunately for Richie, the doctor
didn't dismiss claims that she was suffering from anorexia.
Richie was rightfully frustrated with the tabloids, telling Marie Claire:
"I definitely felt it was a little unfair to say someone has an eating disorder when
they don't. It's extremely insulting and irresponsible. An eating disorder is serious and it's a disease,
and I don't think you can lightly say that someone has a disease unless they're openly
telling you that they do."
Following years of intense media scrutiny, Nicole Richie rebranded herself as a fashion
designer. In 2010, she told The Independent that her parents, especially her mother, are
her biggest inspiration:
"My mum has been a big influence...I'd watch her get dressed and think her fashion sense
was so cool. That made the biggest imprint on me, I would just look up at her and want
to be pretty, wear make-up and get dressed up."
Richie told The Telegraph in 2013 how lucky she felt to be working in the fashion industry.
She revealed that designing was something she always gravitated towards, right down
to creating her own figure skating costumes as a kid. Richie is also a hands-on boss,
saying:
"I have a very good team that I work with now, but I design everything myself. This
is not something that I just put my name to."
They seemed an unlikely pairing but Nicole Richie and Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden
actually come from very similar backgrounds. Richie explained to The Telegraph that they're
both focused on creating a stable environment for their kids, saying:
"Joel and I both grew up in what other people would call an unstable home. We both come
from divorced parents and did a lot of moving around."
Richie and Madden dated for five years and after welcoming two children, daughter Harlow
and son Sparrow, who were born in 2008 and 2009 the couple wed in 2010. In 2014, Richie
spoke to Oprah Winfrey for a Where Are They Now? special and described her and Madden
as, quote, "partners from day one." As they were both children of divorce, she felt she
and Madden didn't have a great example of a healthy home life but they were able to
work through it together. In conversation with family friend Rashida
Jones in 2017, Richie told Refinery29:
"It's extremely important to us for our kids to be kids, to have a full-blown childhood.
And that is the life we've created for [them]."
Richie pointed to the importance of family time, admitting she loves nothing more than
chilling out with her kids. She told Us Weekly in 2019 that when it comes to being a good
parent:
"I think we just have to encourage kids to be themselves and to stand up for what they
believe in and to stand up for something."
The Simple Life wasn't exactly the best showcase, but it did highlight Nicole Richie's indisputable
comedic timing.
"I see pain here. Did something physical happen?"
"Yeah."
Her snarky delivery elevated the show from horrifying train wreck to hilarious must-watch
train wreck. Friend Rashida Jones described Richie as, quote, "naturally funny" in an
interview with Refinery29, saying that Richie's role on the sitcom Great News felt like a
natural transition for her. Richie described the role as making her feel like, quote, "a
true adult" and it was a responsibility she took very seriously.
According to a 2017 profile in Elle, it actually wasn't so much Richie's role in The Simple
Life that got her noticed. Instead, it was Candidly Nicole, her short-lived scripted
reality series for VH1 in which she plays a heightened variation of her public persona
to hilarious effect. The show led to being contacted by none other than 30 Rock creator
and star, Tina Fey, for the role of Portia, a millennial nightmare of a co-anchor, in
Great News.
Nicole Richie has made a remarkable transition over the last decade. Looking back at her
impressive trajectory, she explained to Vice in 2017 that having kids meant taking a step
back from being in the public eye. It was a necessity for Richie, who wanted to protect
her children first and foremost by providing a stable environment for them out of the media
glare.
When she considers the kind of scrutiny she was under starting at such a young age, Richie
realizes it wasn't acceptable or normal. She said:
"My perspective at the time was that it was all kind of put upon me, that I was reacting
to this attention that was put upon me. I know now that that's not necessarily true.
It takes effort to sit in your own power and decide for yourself that you're actually going
to guide your life and not just merely exist."
Rumors are that The Simple Life is returning but Nicole Richie reckons there's no way it
could happen again. She told Vice how isolated she and Hilton were on the show, stating:
"That concept alone wouldn't fly now, which is so crazy because it doesn't seem like that
long ago."
She also admitted they weren't even allowed to use their phones during the first season,
explaining:
"I was cut off from the world. I don't think the show could exist now for that reason,
but that was the whole point. The concept of just leaving your life just isn't a thing.
It was just a whole different time."
In early 2020, she told Entertainment Weekly that it wouldn't be feasible as the two stars
have also gotten older:
"I can't imagine leaving my kids. We've got real jobs now."
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