Lionel Richie’s heartbreaking call from Nicole Richie
LIONEL Richie has described the heartbreaking phone call he received from Nicole Richie when she was at rock bottom.
LIONEL Richie has described the heartbreaking phone call he received from Nicole Richie when she was at rock bottom.
Back in 2003, the singer’s adopted daughter was a household name thanks to her starring role alongside Paris Hilton in The Simple Life.
But as happens to so many people who become rich and famous at a young age, Nicole Richie went off the rails and was arrested for drug possession.
Thankfully, she reached out for help.
“I sound like my father now, but I went to her and I said, ‘When I was growing up I lost three friends, they were the hippest friends I ever knew in life,’” said Lionel Richie in an interview with Piers Morgan.
“‘One was the hippest guy at the clubs, he drank and he died in a car accident. The second friend died of drugs and the third one, suicide’.
“I said, ‘It’s going to happen to your generation. I don’t want you to be in that list of three because after that you’ll be just fine.’
“Well, three months later her friend died of an overdose and I went back to her and very quietly, I was very shocked and I said, ‘I am sorry to hear that, that’s one.’
“And sure enough, one year later the second one died and I said, ‘That’s two’ and I got a phone call and she said ‘Dad I need help, I don’t want to be the third one.’ And I said ‘I am with you’ and I cancelled the tour. I said ‘Me and your mother’, who didn’t get along that well, ‘Me and your mother are checking into rehab with you’.”
As we all know, this story has a happy ending, with Nicole Richie seeking the help she so desperately needed.
She’s now married to Joel Madden and together they have two kids.
Originally published as Lionel Richie’s heartbreaking call from Nicole Richie