Lionel Richie already has a strong bond with Sofia Richie’s boy Henry
It’s time for Lionel Richie to follow a calling.
The call occurred at a Prince concert in 1984, when the Grammy Award winner and his first wife, Brenda Harvey, were attacked by a 3-year-old girl who was playing the tambourine alone on stage.
That child was Nicole Camille Escobedo, the daughter of musician Pete Escobedo and his ex-girlfriend Karen Moss. And both Lionel and Barbara felt that Nicky, as everyone called him, would be better off living with his parents while they figured things out.
“Obviously they loved her and tried very hard for her,” Lionel recalled in his 2025 memoir Truly. “But it was a time of uncertainty.”
He and Brenda became Nikki’s foster parents, then her legal guardians, and adopted parents when she was nine years old. And the child who became Nicole Richie taught Lionel the true meaning of never-ending love.
But for Nicole, 44, and her children Miles Richie, 31, and Sofia Richie, 27, with second wife Diane Alexander, becoming a father for the first, second, or third time hasn’t always been as easy as Sunday morning.
