Lionel Richie and wife, Diane Alexander, split

Jet, Nov 17, 2003

Diane Alexander, the wife of singer Lionel Richie, recently filed for separation after nearly seven years of marriage.

Richie and Alexander were married on December 21, 1996, during a private ceremony at the Metropolitan Club in New York City (JET, Jan. 20, 1997).

The couple are the parents of two children, a 9-year-old son and a 5year-old daughter.

His marriage to Alexander is his second; it is Alexander's first.

Brenda Richie, Lionel's former college sweetheart since his college days at Tuskegee, was his first wife. He idolized her in the popular song Three Times A Lady. Their marriage went out of control in 1988 following public reports that Brenda had initiated an altercation with him and Alexander in Alexander's apartment after Brenda found out the two were baying an affair. The marriage ended in divorce.

Richie told late JET Associate Publisher /Executive Editor Emeritus Robert E. Johnson during a 1997 interview that he began dating Alexander "right after the separation from Brenda" (JET, Jan. 20, 1997).

The Alabama-born musician first won fame as lead singer of the Commodores in the mid-'70s with such hits as Brick House, Easy and Just To Be Close To You. He went solo in the '80s with the hits All Night Long, Truly, Penny Lover and Hello.