In fact, it’s family that helped solidify their union early on. But we’re recognizing that now and so, let’s work at it and let’s go through this together as a team and it’s been great.”

“And from the second we found out we were going to be parents together, we looked at each other and we said, OK, both of our parents are divorced, we both have had ups and downs with our parents, and we don’t really have a strong example of what a healthy family life is. “We met and we were partners from Day 1,” she began. Nicole Richie and Joel Madden welcomed daughter Harlow Winter Kate Madden in February 2008, then son Sparrow James Midnight Madden arrived in September 2009, and the couple has been putting family first ever since.Īs Richie told Oprah in 2014, parenthood has been both “the easiest and hardest part” of their relationship. Nicole Richie and Joel Madden prioritize their family (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage) Opening up about his unconventional proposal, the singer told 60 Minutes Australia, “I just woke up one morning and I said ‘What am I doing, I’m a fool, why have I not asked her to marry me?'” So he popped the question that very night. And marriage, one day it will come.” And it did. As she told Larry King in 2009, “I think for both of us, we are going to do it because we want to, not because that’s what you do.” Madden added, “We already feel kind of married, you know? Our family system that we have down, we feel like this is a real family. It wasn’t the first time she and Madden were asked about their decision to ignore marriage at first. We didn’t have a timeline of getting married or when we were gonna have children and that’s just how we’ve always kind of rolled,” she explained. As Richie told 60 Minutes Australia, “Our entire relationship we’ve just kind of thrown all of the ideas that we’ve grown up believing. They began dating in December 2006, had two kids, and then walked down the aisle in December 2010. Conventions which Nicole Richie and Joel Madden have always ignored. There’s no set rulebook when it comes to relationships, but there are conventions. Nicole Richie and Joel Madden play by their own rules Recalling the first time Richie introduced them, he laughed, “This was not prince charming, let me be honest with you and then, of course, you got the picture right away, which was he really loves my daughter,” he told 60 Minutes Australia. He literally dropped me in season three and I just, like, pretended to know everything and it was horrible, and then I hated the show! Nicole RichieĪnd when it came time for dad Lionel Richie to meet Madden, he too learned the importance of looking beyond appearances. “I lied and said that I did, so he would hang out with me,” but her plan nearly backfired. “I was 25 when I met him and he said, ‘Have you ever watched The Wire?’” she recalled. As she confessed to Ryan Seacrest in 2016, she lied just to get Madden to spend more time with her. Soon, Richie was trying her best to impress him.

Sparrow madden