Nicole Richie’s life “reads like a train wreck”, according to her father Lionel.
The 59-year-old singer, who is Nicole’s adoptive dad, admits he was “worried” about his daughter when she was arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana and painkiller Vicodin in 2006, but is delighted with how she has turned her life around.
He said: “I was worried about her. I mean, her life story reads like a train wreck, but she has amazing powers of recovery. She went through her drug period, then came back to centre. She went through a car accident, then came back to centre. She went through arrest, back to centre. Her ability to get through it and recover is amazing.”
Lionel, who is divorced from Nicole’s adoptive mother Brenda, adds he is not sure he was the best father to Nicole – who has one-year-old daughter Harlow with her partner Joel Madden – as he often had to miss family events due to work.
He explained: “Because of the nature of my business and the fact that I travel so much, when I’m asked, ‘Can you make it to the dinner party?’ I don’t know. ‘Can you make it to the family reunion?’ Well let’s go back and look at my track record. For 20 years, the answer was: I never made one.”