Did You Know Lionel Richie Adopted His Daughter Nicole?
American Idol returns for its 17th season in March.
Judge Lionel Richie has been open about his family life.
Lionel has been married twice, and now is now in a relationship with Lisa Parigi.
American Idol judge Lionel Richie takes an honest, mentoring role with hopeful singers who appear on the show. He says he wants contestants to understand the reality of the music business. For Lionel, it’s an industry he has mastered since the late 1960s. And now at age 69, he’s busier than ever with music, a new home collection, and his growing family.
Lionel was with The Commodores in the 1960s and 1970s, a group that formed as undergrads at Tuskegee University. In the early 1980s, Lionel’s songwriting skills had caught record executives’ attention and he was encouraged to release a solo album. In the decade that followed, Lionel saw chart-topping hits with songs like "Hello" and "All Night Long."
But the decade also brought turbulence for the singer/songwriter. Lionel was married to his college sweetheart, Brenda Harvey, and together they adopted a daughter, Nicole, now 37. Nicole’s musician parents were unable to care for her, and the Richies took her in when she was four years old (they finalized the adoption when she was nine). But rumors swirled that Lionel was having an affair and the couple separated. They divorced in 1993 after 18 years of marriage, according to People.
Lionel remarried to Diane Alexander in 1995 and the couple had two children, Miles, 24, and Sofia, 20. The couple divorced in 2003, and Lionel is now in a long-term relationship with Lisa Parigi, a designer from Switzerland, according to The Washington Post.
The couple is very private, but Lisa occasionally joins Lionel and his children on the red carpet for an awards show or special event. Lionel says his children are the most important aspect of his life, and he told GQ he thinks his three kids define him more than any hit record or award. “As I tell the joke every day, you know, all you need is two girls and one boy,” he told the magazine.
Lionel has other jokes, most of them "dad jokes" that he tells audiences between songs on Idol. He’s currently touring the U.S., and on average, he performs 70 times a year. He also recently finished a residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
In addition to his music, Lionel also launched a home collection, sold exclusively at J.C. Penney stores. Lionel said he had considered a collection for many years and he enjoyed the creative challenge of designing bedding and towels.
Despite his busy schedule, Lionel puts his family first. He now has two grandchildren from daughter Nicole and her husband, Good Charlotte rocker Benji Madden. The grandchildren, Harlow (born 2008) and Sparrow (born 2009) call Lionel their “Pop Pop.”
A post shared by Lionel Richie (@lionelrichie) on Sep 21, 2018 at 1:19am PDT
And even though Nicole is in her late-thirties, Lionel is very clear that she’s still his little girl. On Instagram for her birthday, he posted a picture of the two of them together in the 1980s and called her his “ballerina girl.”
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