Nicole Richie initially gained notoriety when she appeared on the reality showThe Simple Lifeopposite fellow socialite and then-BFFParis Hilton.
In the latter stages of her career, she retreated from the limelight.
In interviews, including many of those referenced below, she presents as friendly and accommodating, though guarded.
Here’s a look at the star’s stunningtransformationover the years.
“My childhood was my childhood,” she told the publication.
“I don’t have another one to compare it to.”
“Looking back, I think I had a wonderful childhood,” she opined.
I always wanted to do Broadway."
Indeed, Lionel Richie’s song “Ballerina Girl” is about his daughter.
I would go and I came home and just writing that song was just her song."
The reality star admitted toPeoplein 2007 that she started doing drugs as a teenager.
And, at just 19, Richie was hooked on heroin.
Looking back, she realizes, “I was pretty out of control.”
She toldPeopleit was a simple realization of knowing “this isn’t the life … this was heroin.”
“I wanted her to understand that this is not her problem alone.
This is a family problem,” her father explained simply.
Instead, she thought they “were just being really strict.”
However, the rehab stint put everything into perspective.
In fact, their time in treatment together changed the entire family dynamic.
Richie credits that time with bridging the gap between them.
…We survive their antics on a daily basis."
It was like backpacking through Europe: something you do in your twenties."
That’s what your twenties are for!"
In a 2014 interview withMarie Claire Mexico(viaE!
“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.
More than anything else, she wanted to set a good example.
I’m not ‘there’ yet," she explained.
“I don’t know whether I’ll ever be ‘there.'”
She admitted that, previously, “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.”
Richie was rightfully frustrated with the tabloids at the time.
It’s extremely insulting and irresponsible," Richie toldMarie Clairesuccinctly.
This is not something that I just put my name to."
Richie and Madden dated for five years before they felt the time “was right” to get married.
“That’s the easiestandhardest part” of being married to Madden, she revealed.
And that is the life we’ve created for [them]."
“What we both do is just try and pour our interest into what the kids are interested in.
We ask them what they want to do.
Her snarky delivery elevated the show from horrifying train wreck tohilariousmust-watch train wreck.
They weren’t even allowed to use their phones during the first season, she admitted.
As Richie explained, “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.”
“I can’t imagine leaving my kids.
We’ve got real jobs now,” she argued.
