Tragic Details About Lionel Richie's Daughter Nicole

Lionel Richie is known for many things. Getting his start with the Commodores in the 1970s, the legendary songwriter and crooner went on to create hits like "Hello" and "All Night Long," among many others, and more recently he's also been an "American Idol" judge since the show returned in 2018. Richie has contributed something else to pop culture, though: he's the adoptive father of reality star, actor, rapper, and socialite Nicole Richie.

Though Nicole Richie has built a brand for herself as a well-respected all-around celebrity, she spent the 2000s being put through the wringer. After she appeared on "The Simple Life" alongside childhood best friend Paris Hilton, Richie was thrust into the spotlight right as pop culture became incredibly cruel to young women. She was hounded by paparazzi and mocked by tabloids, her weight was speculated about endlessly, and her infamous legal troubles were dissected on every late-night show on television. Despite all the privilege afforded to her as the child of an extremely famous musician, Nicole's story is one of having faced great adversity and come out the other side as what appears to be a well-adjusted human being. Read on to learn some of the tragic details about Lionel Richie's daughter Nicole.

Sometime in the early 1980s, Lionel Richie attended a Prince concert. The singer wasn't the main thing that caught his eye; instead, he realized that Prince had a 2-year-old girl up on stage with him, playing the tambourine. She was the daughter of two band members, and her name was Nicole. They met backstage, and a few weeks later, Richie visited her home alongside Prince collaborator Sheila E., who was Nicole's aunt. On an episode of "Talk to Me," he recalled, "We're now discovering the difficulties that's happening here, and the behind the scenes things happening. We're worried about, well, the little kid can't go on tour!" Richie noted that time passed, and Nicole's parents still seemed unable to properly care for her. "The situation with you wasn't getting any better. It was actually getting worse," he said. "The family situation was falling apart."

The "Endless Love" singer decided to adopt Nicole, and she became Nicole Richie. While the situation was undoubtedly tragic before Lionel moved in to save Nicole, it was also tragic in the sense that the adoption made her lose touch with people from the early years of her life. In her memoir "The Beat of My Own Drum" (via the Daily News), Sheila E. recalled the adoption as a moment of loss. "The heartbreaking part is that once Nicole Escovedo legally became Nicole Richie," she wrote, "it felt like we lost her. We all lost her."

Growing up in Los Angeles as the daughter of an extremely famous musician, Nicole Richie found herself a hard-partying teenager who was around all sorts of temptation. "I got so much so fast that nothing really excited me anymore," she told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired on "20/20" (via People). "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." For Richie, that meant dabbling in illegal substances. First came cocaine, and then heroin. "I, again, made the decision for myself, this is something I have to do. I have to get off drugs. This isn't the life ... this was heroin," she reflected.

Richie went to rehab for heroin addiction in 2003. Thankfully, it seems to have gone well, and she has been sober from drugs since. In an interview with Vanity Fair about turning her life around, Richie described just how bad things had gotten. "There were points when my mom would come home and scream at me about something, and I literally didn't care about anything," she said. "It was like watching a really dramatic movie with the volume turned down. I thought I was getting away with everything."

She wasn't, though, and rehab helped her reconsider. "I want to be able to take whatever comes to me and not physically break down every time hard things come my way," she mused, "because hard things are always going to come my way."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

At the height of her tabloid fame, as "The Simple Life" made her one of the most famous young women in the country, Nicole Richie was hounded by rumors that she had an eating disorder. For example, in 2006, Star Magazine ran a headline that read, "From sex kitten to scary skinny!" No matter how much Richie tried to deny it, the media kept asking her. While speaking with Diane Sawyer for ABC News, Richie insisted, "I do not have an eating disorder. I've never had an eating disorder, ever. It's anxiety, it's stress, it's just — it's just not being careful."

Despite her reality television fame, Richie resisted and resented the idea that she was a role model for young women. However, after years in the spotlight, she came to acknowledge that she felt a certain responsibility to think more carefully about what she represented. She told Vanity Fair, "I know I'm too thin right now, so I wouldn't want any young girl looking at me and saying, 'That's what I want to look like.' I do know that they will, which is another reason I really do need to do something about it."

To that end, Richie enlisted the help of doctors and nutritionists to help her gain weight. She also had her first child that year, which helped. "I eat all the time, especially now. I'm constantly hungry," she insisted to ABC News. "I'm eating at least every hour."

"The Simple Life" thrust Nicole Richie's friendship with fellow socialite Paris Hilton into the international spotlight at the same time Richie was trying to find sobriety from her drug addiction. The pressures of sudden mega-fame ultimately came between the two besties, though information about what, exactly, went down between them has been scarce. As rumors swirled in the media that Richie had held a "Saturday Night Live" watch party for Hilton's hosting gig — and then shown attendees Hilton's infamous sex tape instead — the hotel heiress released a statement to People. "It's no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends. Nicole knows what she did, and that's all I'm ever going to say about it," she said.

The next few years were full of passive-aggressive insults hurled in the media between the formerly-tight twosome. They even filmed "The Simple Life" separately, unwilling to be on set at the same time. Richie eventually denied the sex tape watch party rumors in an interview with Vanity Fair, insisting, "That was completely made up. A, I don't watch porn, and, B, I don't want to see someone I've known forever having sex. I mean, that's gross!" Instead, she said, "I just decided I didn't want to be her friend anymore."

Though the two reportedly reconciled after "The Simple Life," they kept their renewed friendship out of the spotlight. This unfortunately meant Hilton had to miss out on Richie's wedding to Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden. A source told Us Weekly, "Nicole knew very well that having Paris involved would have inevitably turned a special night into being about their friendship."

During her wild-child phase, Nicole Richie had numerous run-ins with the law. Her first arrest, for possession of heroin, came even before "The Simple Life" made it to air. She was arrested for assault a few years later, telling Vanity Fair, "A guy said I stabbed him in the eye with a glass at Bungalow 8. I had stolen my mom's credit cards and run away from home. In my mind, it was great."

Her most widely-publicized arrest, however, came in 2006, when she was nabbed for DUI after she was found driving the wrong way on a California freeway. During the trial, Los Angeles County Commissioner Steven Lubell told her (via People), "Someone could've gotten killed. You need to understand that driving under the influence is extremely dangerous." 

In an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" (via Today), Richie told him she was nervous about her sentencing. "I'm just keeping my fingers crossed, and, you know, of course, I'm scared also, but, you know, I'm willing to face whatever consequences come my way, and I take responsibility for what I've done," she said. Richie was ultimately sentenced to four days in prison for the offense, and due to overcrowding, she was released after only 82 minutes. The fallout from the incident stretched on for years, as her probation was extended due to not having completed her mandatory community service. Finally, in 2010, the ordeal was over. 

When Nicole Richie sought treatment in 2006 to help her gain weight, her doctors spoke with Vanity Fair about all of the possible diagnoses they were considering. "We're working on a systematic plan to get more calories in, and we're going to watch it and see if it succeeds. We're all concerned, and she's concerned, but it's either going to improve or it won't," Dr. Jeffrey Wilkins, a psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told the magazine. "If it's not anorexia, she should be able to gain the weight. If it ends up being anorexia, we'll help her with that. I think she's willing to look this in the eye."

The following year, Richie's health troubles hit the headlines when she was hospitalized for dehydration while filming "The Simple Life." A representative told E! News, "Nicole is home resting and will return to work this evening. We are proud of the weight that Nicole is gaining and her focus on her health."

Finally, later that year, Richie went public with a diagnosis that explained her health issues. "In her ongoing effort to focus on her well-being, Nicole has recently been diagnosed with hypoglycemia," a publicist told People. Hypoglycemia means she has low blood sugar. According to her publicist, "[She] is taking steps to manage it."