Lionel Richie: talks about famous daughter Nicole stormy marriages career highs & lows new CD

Jet, June 21, 2004 by Aldore D. Collier

After a long, self-imposed exile from public life, legendary singer/songwriter Lionel Richie is back and he's making news all over again.

He's publicly discussing his daughter Nicole's well-documented drug problems, his two stormy marriages, the high and low points of his lengthy career and the motivation for his brand new CD Just For You.

Richie told JET that as an "Alabama boy," he was raised to keep private matters private. Never did he expect so much of his personal life to be splashed across file tabloids or on television news. The first time that happened was when things got physical between him and ex-wife Brenda. He vividly recalls having been called a "wuss" and other names by some in the media for having let a woman "beat" him up.

"I said to one member of the press, 'Let me ask you a question: Would you have liked it the other way if it was said 'Lionel Richie Beat Up His Wife? Does that sound better?' The guy said 'no.' Then I said when a couple has an argument and it gets physical, wouldn't most guys just not throw a punch at all? I didn't do anything to Brenda. And that sounds better than I knocked her out."

That 1988 altercation also included Diane Alexander, the woman Richie dated and later married. Brenda Richie reportedly beat and kicked them both.

"Once the police came for the disturbance, that's when it became a mess. One thing people don't realize is that long before that happened, Brenda and I were separated. We were not living in the same house. All you read about was that Lionel got caught. I hadn't told the press that we were separated. When I finished my Dancing on the Ceiling tour, I came home and moved out."

He took time off following that situation and spent time with his parents in Alabama, and in 1996 married Alexander, fathering two children with her--Miles, now 10, and Sofia, 5. He and Alexander separated last fall and made huge headlines when she reportedly asked for $300,000 per month in living expenses.

"When I saw those numbers, I called up my accountant and asked, 'How much did you say I have, because $300,000 a month means I'm making about a billion."

He said the $300,000 figure was blown out of proportion and details are being worked out between him and Diane. He quickly pointed out that he and Brenda are now in a very good place. "I have a great relationship with Brenda now. Nicole has done a great job keeping us in tune with each other. And with Diane, I must tell you we are healing very, very nicely. What has happened, for the most part, is sometimes you need to give people space to kind of get themselves back together."

Richie found himself drawn back into media spotlight last fall when Nicole and her best friend Paris Hilton were on the highly-rated reality series "The Simple Life," loosely based on the 1960s sitcom "Green Acres," where a city couple experienced culture shock when they moved into a rural area. In "The Simple Life," the two moved to rural Arkansas.

Hilton's nude pictures appeared on the Internet and Nicole's drug problems became national stories.

Richie blamed himself for some of Nicole's transgressions by admitting that he was an absentee father. Nicole, now 22, was adopted by Lionel and Brenda Richie as an infant. Her natural father is musician Pete Escovedo, brother of musician Sheila E. No details of her natural mother were released.

Recently, father and daughter appeared on "Oprah" and talked about their problems and renewed relationship. Nicole spoke in graphic details about her battle with drugs.

Richie told JET, "If you look back on my career, it's one of those situations where you have to ask, 'Am I winning or am I losing?' Okay, I've got hit records. I'm famous around the world. I'm comfortable in my living. Then you start asking the questions, 'But was I there for my kid during the recitals? Was I there for my kid's graduation? Was I there?' And a lot of the times the answer was, especially in Nicole's case, no. As I said to Oprah, I was trying my best at that time to be Lionel Richie. I wasn't Lionel Richie yet. I was an ex-Commodore."

After leaving the group, he said he found himself working harder than ever "and I wasn't focusing at all on what Nicole was doing but where do I go next with Hello or All Night Long. I wasn't there."

Nicole told JET that she ended up, at age 9, having to be a surrogate parent to Brenda following the split up. "She was devastated like any person would be. But it was a good thing that I took care of my morn because I didn't really get a chance to get that upset because I was wanting to make everyone happy."

By age 13, she said she was doing heavy-duty drugs with much older kids. "I had the freedom to do what I wanted. My dad wasn't really around and my morn was just doing her thing. When you're a girl and 13, you're at a rebellious stage anyway. And I definitely wasn't listening to my parents anyway. From the time I was 9 through 13, nobody was around. So, when they did start coming around, they started telling me what to do."