With hits like All Night Long, Hello, and We Are the World, Lionel Richie has been praised and crazed about for decades. And his personal life has been just as noteworthy. From his famous daughters, Nicole and Sofia Richie, to his scandalous relationship with Lisa Parigi, who’s 40 years his junior, the man has made headlines for not only his music.

Beyond his music and personal life is Richie’s failing health. He battled an illness that distressed his vocal cords, and he had to undergo four surgeries. The process nearly sent him over the edge and into a state of no return.

On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown

The experience of getting multiple surgeries, for Lionel Richie, was “About as close as you ever would’ve come to a nervous breakdown,” he described. “You don’t want anybody fooling around down there. This is your identity.”

There was one person, however, who helped the singer see the impact he had on others. It was an older man he had met in Jamaica. He told Richie, “You must survive because you are our beacon of hope. If you make it, we know we can make it. If you accomplish, we know we can accomplish.” Richie couldn’t help but cry in response to the kind man’s words.

Is Lionel Richie Married?

Richie is not currently married, but he’s been involved with a woman who has placed both of them on the front pages. As of February 2021, Richie has been in the news for reasons other than his music or surgeries. His relationship with Lisa Parigi has been an eyebrow-raising one. Why? Because he’s 40 years older than her.

Yup. A four-decade age gap will most definitely put an already popular singer on the front page of the tabloids. On Valentine’s Day 2021, Richie shared a photo of him and his girlfriend on Instagram. But the couple have actually been dating since 2014.

A 41-Year Age Gap

The 71-year-old and his 30-year-year-old gal have caused something of a stir on the internet. What makes it even more uncomfortable for many onlookers is the fact that Parigi is younger than Richie’s eldest daughter, Nicole.

Fans were quick to point out the hypocrisy. Richie was upset when his daughter, Sofia, was dating Scott Disick, a man 15 years her senior. Her father referred to it as “a phase,” but in another interview, he said he “accepted their relationship but still isn’t entirely 100 percent on board with Scott mostly because of the age difference and how young Sofia is.”

He Doesn’t Want to Get Married Again

The age gap clearly hasn’t affected Richie and Parigi’s relationship (who knows, maybe it works in their favor?). They’ve even spoken about marriage and babies. As for the marriage topic, Richie isn’t so gung-ho on the idea.

“Marriage … it’s a bad idea for men. I’ve been there twice and it was very expensive for me,” Richie said in 2016, two years after he started dating Parigi. He said how “kids aren’t the problem — ex-wives are. That’s why I won’t marry again, but I’m happy to commit in other ways.”

Kids, on the Other Hand, Are a Possibility

As for Parigi, she doesn’t seem to want him to put a ring on it (or at least she says so publicly). “I don’t need a ring to validate my relationship with him,” Parigi stated. “What we already have is enough. So many people need marriage to validate a relationship, but I’m not one of them. Lionel doesn’t owe me anything.”

Okay, so maybe marriage isn’t in the cards. But what about kids? Richie admitted that he’s “willing to become a father again… Lisa and I are cool with the idea of children.”

Wife #1: Brenda Harvey

Richie has been married twice, the first time to a woman named Brenda Harvey. The two were college sweethearts who met at Tuskegee University (Richie earned a degree in economics). The two married in 1975, after which they adopted a young Nicole Richie in 1990 (more on this soon).

By 1993, Richie and Harvey divorced, reportedly due to an affair he was having with the woman who would become his second wife. About five years earlier, Harvey had been arrested for assaulting both Lionel and his mistress after catching them together in the mistress’s apartment.

The Cheating Scandal

Back in 1988, Richie’s “cheating scandal” hit the tabloids. But the truth is he had already met his mistress, Diane Alexander, in 1984 during the Los Angeles Olympics ceremony. Richie performed the song All Night Long at the venue.

Alexander, who appeared in Richie’s 1986 music video for Dancing on the Ceiling, caught his eye. According to Richie’s neighbors, the singer was sneaking out to Alexander’s apartment for years. After his divorce from Harvey, he and Alexander started publicly dating. The whole thing didn’t sit well with Harvey, who famously “drop-kicked” her ex-husband.

The Time His Ex-Wife Drop-Kicked Him

Eventually, the rumors of Richie’s and Alexander’s affair reached Harvey, who was still his wife at the time. According to multiple sources, Harvey surprised Richie when she showed up at Alexander’s apartment at 2 a.m. one night with an intent to confirm her suspicions.

Harvey lost her cool once she saw them together, and Richie faced the brunt of it. She proceeded to “drop-kick” Richie in the stomach before he managed to flee the scene. Harvey didn’t leave Alexander untouched. Lt. Robert Curtis, the officer on the scene, reported what happened when they showed up…

“It Sounded Like She Was Killing Someone”

Curtis reported: “Our officers arrived in less than a minute, observed suspect Brenda Richie striking and kicking the victim on the floor of the apartment.” He then described how a “second victim, entertainer Lionel Richie,” had called in to tell officers that he had been kicked in the stomach area by Mrs. Richie (at the apartment).”

According to Alexander’s neighbor, Francis Devinney, “They were screaming, and you could hear everything. Lionel was there, and it was obvious that his wife had just found him with Diane. His wife was really, really mad.” She heard glass breaking, furniture crashing around. “It sounded like she was killing someone.”

After All That, They Stayed Together

Harvey was arrested for multiple charges, including suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, resisting arrest, trespassing, vandalism, battery, and disturbing the peace. She was later released on a $5,000 bail. Despite the traumatic incident, they remained married for another five years.

It looks as though the two let bygones be bygones. When Mother’s Day rolled around, Richie paid his respects to his first wife. “In my case, my mother passed … but then I’ve got Nicole’s mom,” he said in 2019. “I’m going to be busy on Mother’s Day. We’ll have a semi-family reunion. I send flowers, I do dinners. I do the whole thing.”

Wife #2: Diane Alexander

Richie married Alexander in 1995, two years after his divorce. People speculate that their affair began after she appeared in the Dancing on the Ceiling video. The couple had two (biological) children together, Sofia and Miles.

But their marriage also failed to win the longevity battle. By 2005, they were no longer together. The reason: irreconcilable differences. Alexander apparently requested $300,000 a month in child and spousal support. Her reason: she and Richie “had an extraordinary, extravagant lifestyle.” The divorce was listed as “one of the most expensive divorce settlements.”

Why He Chose to Adopt Nicole Richie

It’s well known that Richie adopted Nicole Richie when she was a little girl. Reflecting on the adoption, Richie said it was one of the best decisions he and his first wife ever made. “Nicole was actually a godsend. She was a little girl who needed a shot,” he stated in 2022. So how did it come about?

In 1983, Richie was at a Prince concert in Los Angeles and there was something – or someone, rather – that he couldn’t take his eyes off. It wasn’t the singer who captivated him on the stage; it was a 2-year-old girl playing the tambourine next to him.

She Belonged to Another Musician

Richie was immediately drawn to her; so much so that he started asking around to see out whose child this was. He soon learned that her name was Nicole Camille Escovedo, the daughter of musician Peter Escovedo and Karen Moss, who worked for Peter’s sister, singer Sheila Escovedo.

Richie remembers thinking “Oh my god, what a cute little button,” he told Huffington Post of meeting Nicole for the first time. He just never thought he would end up adopting her. Her biological parents, however, were having difficulties in their relationship.

She Was Living in an Unstable Home

A few weeks after he first saw Nicole, he saw the little girl again and learned about the challenges she was facing at home. “We [were] a little worried that the little kid can’t go on tour because a 2-year-old needs to be stationary — they can’t keep going on the road,” Richie explained, referring to Nicole’s parents’ careers.

“I don’t know how we got into the conversation,” Richie said, which eventually led to the parents asking Richie and his then-wife, “Well, why don’t you just kind of keep the kid here?”

Despite the Fame, He Remained Grounded

At the time, it made sense to have Nicole come to them as Richie already knew Sheila Escovedo and her family. About two years later, when Nicole was four, the “situation with you wasn’t getting any better,” he said to Nicole in the Huffington Post interview.

He explained to his daughter that he and Harvey started out as her legal guardians. But her “family situation was falling apart.” Despite his skyrocketing fame, when he was winning Grammys and making hits, he was grounded enough to enter the role of adopted father.

She Was Nine When the Adoption Became Official

Within “about maybe a year,” Richie fell in love with the “little button,” and by that time he was already “Dad” to the little girl. That’s when he decided to make it official and legally adopt her. By the time the adoption was official, Nicole was already nine years old.

“I can remember to this day, that little head, sitting up in the little judge’s chamber,” Richie recalled, when he realized that the young girl didn’t really understand what was happening. While she called him Dad, he still had to gain her trust.

He Had to Gain Her Trust

Richie revealed that that gaining Nicole’s trust was a challenge, especially since she didn’t experience stability in her young life. “I remember you had abandonment issues for obvious reasons,” he told her in the interview.

“You’ve been handed around to every relative in the family. And remember what I said to you. I said, ‘I’m never, ever going to leave you.’” But Nicole doubted what her new dad was telling her, and he remembered “this look” she had on her face. Still, he persisted. He told her he would never leave her.

She Changed His Life

Eventually, Nicole learned to believe, and she saw how, in the end, he was telling the truth; he never left her. Nicole herself remembers how insistent he was, even with his going away on tour for weeks and months on end. He would always come back to her.

For Richie, everything up until that point had revolved around his music career – the song writing and the touring. But with Nicole in the picture, he found something he “could actually fall in love with that was never going to leave me.” He told his daughter, “You kind of changed my life a great deal in terms of softening my heart.”

He Canceled His Tour to Be With Her in Rehab

Nicole Richie has gone through her own ups and downs in life. The now 41-year-old has always had her dad around to support her. When she went to rehab for drug addiction in 2003, he left everything to be by her side. He canceled his tour to be with her.

There was a time when Nicole’s extremely thin appearance was about a topic of conversation. Richie supported her then, too. “With my kids, I know their job is to completely scare me to death — and they’re doing a great job, by the way,” he admitted to People in 2019. “I told this to Nicole the other day, my job is to embarrass them as much as I could, as long as I’m here. They’re trying to do the same to me, so I think it’s an equal swap right now.”

A Master of Crossing Genres

Richie received the Johnny Mercer Award (the highest honor in the Songwriters Hall of Fame) to commemorate his music. He spoke with Billboard about how he came to cross genres in music so well. He explained how his grandmother was a classical piano instructor at the college he went to.

He also grew up in a home where Bach and other classical musicians were always heard. But he was also born and raised in Alabama, where country music was very much a part of his everyday life.

Three Times a Lady Was Written for Frank Sinatra

Three Times a Lady came before the days of having a piano in his home. He actually wrote the song on the university campus. “I didn’t only write things for the Commodores [the band]” he said; “I also would write songs with somebody in mind, who I thought could sing it.”

With this song specifically, he had Frank Sinatra in mind. When he wrote songs back then, he would find someone else to sing vocals, explaining that the Commodores, his group, was a “funk, party band from Alabama competing against the Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire.”

It Came From His Secret Stash of Songs

A waltz was nowhere near what they – as a band – needed at the time, is how Richie put it. But then his co-producer, James Carmichael, learned that Richie had a “secret stash of songs.” He started to look at all the songs he was writing for other people.

So, Richie played Three Times a Lady for Carmichael, telling his co-producer that he wanted to give it to Sinatra. But Carmichael told him, “No you won’t, you’re going to give this to the Commodores.”

It Was Inspired by a Toast to His Mom

Richie disclosed that the inspiration for the song – what’s become a family joke – was his father. His dad (“a warm and huggy guy”) one day decided to make a toast to his wife, Richie’s mom. “She’s a great lady, she’s a great mother, and she’s a great friend,” he declared.

Richie thought it was “a great little toast,” so he sat own and wrote this waltz, which wasn’t considered an R&B song. The song became a hit around the world, was the first Commodores smash record, and Richie went on Johnny Carson to say how it basically came from his father’s toast.

Paying His Dad Off

Richie told Carson that it was all about how we can never really repay our parents for all they’ve done for us. His father, who saw the show, called Richie up and told him how touched he was to see that, but then he asked his son, “Would you try? Would you try to repay your parents as much as possible?”

Richie, laughing while recounting the story, said when the royalty check came, his dad was looking for his check. “I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to pay him off for ‘Three Times a Lady.’”

He Wrote Goodbye When His Parents Died

Richie explained how he wrote Goodbye as the opposite of his classic hit, Hello. At the time he wrote it, in 2005, he lost both his parents and his grandmother. “It was probably one of the hardest songs I’ve ever had to write in my life,” he said.

It was about saying goodbye – just as it sounds. He was basically saying goodbye to the people he spent a lifetime with. “It is one of those songs I was so excited about,” but at the same time, they sold the record company and the song was never really heard – never released as a single, and the album got lost.

From Alabama to the LA Country Club

Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (his given name) grew up in the segregated post-World War II state of Alabama. The family home was owned by educator Margaret Washington, Booker T. Washington’s third wife. Richie still owns the property to this day and has been fixing it up ever since he left in 1968.

But these days, he’s living it up in his 17,000 square-foot, 28-room home at the Los Angeles Country Club. It’s one of the homes included on those celebrity bus tours. “I feel about my home the way I feel about my music: you have to take chances,” he told Architectural Digest in 2007.

Raised in a Culture of Lynching

Richie was raised right outside of the Tuskegee University campus, which was shielded from Alabama’s culture of lynching. “We had no idea that the Klan was marching through town,” he revealed of his childhood, “because they put us to bed early.”

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t know what was going on. It was a time when the Jim Crow laws were in full effect. One day, when he was six, he went to Montgomery with his father. He didn’t see the sign “and just drank the water.” Then a group of guys started saying something to his dad…

His Dad, the Army Analyst

Young Richie wondered why his dad, Lionel Richie Sr., a US Army analyst, didn’t “kick their ass” right then and there. Year later, he asked his father about it, to which he replied, “I had a choice that day of either being a man, or your father.”

“If I turned around acting like a man, they’d have probably shot and killed me.” It was at that point, Richie recalled, that he realized something was happening outside of the “bubble” of his safe home outside the college campus.

The Nerdy Kid

As a kid, Richie was a bit of a nerd. Raised in a musical and educated household, one of his uncles (who arranged for Duke Ellington) gave the young kid his first saxophone. He practiced, grew inspired and motivated, and decided not to become an Episcopal priest.

He eventually formed a trio called the Mystics, performing at prom dances. The Mystics then morphed into the Commodores. In the summer of 1970, he and the Commodores went to New York City, got an agent, and the next year they were opening for the Jackson 5 on their 40-city tour.

He Has Empathy for the American Idol Contestants

It took a while for Richie to feel comfortable in front of an audience. At a Tuskegee talent show, he was terrified everyone was looking at him. Knowing what it feels like to stand, horrified, on a stage is why he has such empathy for the American Idol contestants that he judges on the show’s panel.

“When these kids walk out, some of them have this confidence of ‘I got this.’ And … no, you don’t,” he explained. By the way, Richie is said to earn about $10 million per season on the show (Katy Perry makes $25).

How Much Is Lionel Richie Worth?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Richie is worth $200 million, and his decades long career can be thanked for that. It really started when the Commodores were swept into the mainstream and toured with the Jackson, when Richie formed an enduring friendship with Michael Jackson.

By the ‘80s, both artists were winning Grammys and taking over the music industry. Of 32 nominations, Richie won four Grammys. In 1985, he won Song of the Year for We Are the World, and he was the first person to receive an RIAA Diamond album award. He’s also been nominated for two Golden Globe awards and won one.

Writing “We Are the World” Scared Him to Death

Apparently, Richie had a thrilling moment when writing We Are the World with Michael Jackson. “I was screaming like the last horror movie in Hollywood,” he later recalled. One incident scared him “to absolute death” and it was when they were in Jackson’s room, “trying to write the lyrics to the whole thing.”

Richie kept hearing a breathing sound and wondered, ‘What the heck is that?’ Well, he discovered that to his right, lying on the floor, he was “eye to eye with his albino python!” Yes, Jackson had a pet snake, in addition to Bubbles, his pet chimp.

He Found Michael Jackson’s Pet Snake

He then proceeded to scream like a schoolgirl in a horror movie. He then heard the words, “Oh my God, Lionel. I found him. I knew he was in here somewhere.” It turns out Jackson had lost his snake somewhere in his room for two weeks.

“That’s a memory… while we were writing the lyrics.” Despite the traumatic writing process, the song – released in March 1985 to benefit African famine relief – became the fastest-selling US pop single in history. The track was also produced by Quincy Jones.

Bob Dylan Showed Up, but Prince Didn’t

One of the “hardest artists” to lock down for the song was Bob Dylan. “Bob is a sweetheart,” Richie laughed, “but when Bob says, ‘I’ll be there,’ you have to say to yourself, ‘Okay, did he get the right day? Is it the right time? Is it going to be there?”

To their surprise, Dylan was one of the first there. There were rumors that Prince “blew off” the recording session to perform somewhere else. Prince was at a Mexican night club/restaurant called Carlos’ N Charlies.

Everyone Has a Prince Story

Richie told Andy Cohen the dirt on the Prince story. The artist had told Richie that he “can come, but I want to record in a separate room.” It wasn’t exactly what the producers wanted to hear. “So, the answer was ‘hang up the phone, we’ll see you later,’” Richie told Cohen.

Although he wanted Prince on the track, it wasn’t the kind of “attitude” they were looking for. Still, he, Jackson, and Prince “were all friends,” but when he requested an isolated area, it was the wrong direction. They were trying to make it “a united front for all.”

Michael Jackson Liked to Prank Lionel Richie

Richie recalled how young – “very, very young” – and mischievous the Jackson brothers were. “We kept thinking, ‘Are we babysitting?’” Richie admitted, referring to his band touring with the Jacksons. The loved to play “all these crazy pranks,” Richie lovingly recalled.

“If you leave your shoes to be polished at the hotel, you wake up the next morning, they’ve put ice cubes in them.” He remembers how they would put itching powder in their hair on the plane. “An afro with itching powder in it after an hour flight… They thought it was so funny.”

Richie Wrote “Lady” for His Group, but Kenny Rogers Wanted It

Kenny Rogers, who died in 2020, met Richie in 1980. Rogers wasn’t a songwriter, but, as he said, he “knew how to pick ‘em.” Richie wrote him a song that became a hit around the world. Back in 1980, when Richie was still with the Commodores, Rogers was looking for a power ballad.

Richie wrote Lady for his own group, but they didn’t want it. They told him that Kenny Rogers wanted the song. Two weeks later, the song was complete. Lady was an “explosion onto the music scene.” Both a hit and an unlikely friendship was cemented.

Richie and Rogers: The Odd Couple

Richie saw Rogers as something of a mentor, an older brother, and their friendship lasted for the next four decades. Richie referred to them as the “oddest of odd couples.” Rogers thanked his friend for writing Lady on stage at the American Music Awards as his solo career began.

Richie said that after that point, everything in his life, “from that moment on, had a Kenny Rogers stamp on it.” When he left the Commodores and tried to make it as a solo artist, Rogers “was that guy.”

A Little Bit About Nicole Richie

Nicole became the talk of the town back in 2003 with her reality show The Simple Life with Paris Hilton. After The Simple Life, Nicole ventured out as a television personality, actress, author, and fashion designer. She got judging gigs on reality runway shows Fashion Star and Making the Cut.

Nicole is also a wife and mother now with teenaged kids of her own. She married Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden in 2010, but, before tying the knot, they had already had their children, daughter Harlow and son Sparrow.

Who Is Miles Richie?

Miles was born in 1994 to Richie and Alexander. He didn’t end up following in his father’s footsteps with a musical career. He chose, rather, to try modeling and signed with Wilhelmina. “I’d like to be known as a model or an actor, not just the ‘son of,’ or the ‘brother of,’” he said in 2018.

“I’d like to develop my own identity in those scenarios.” Miles made his runway debut in 2019 at New York Fashion Week. That year, he was arrested at Heathrow airport in London for making a bomb threat and punching a security guard.

Who Is Sofia Richie?

Sofia Richie is one of Richie’s three children, but his only biological daughter from his marriage to Diane Alexander. Sofia, born in 1998, was six years old when her parents split. Like her big brother, Sofia became a talent in modeling and worked with major brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Adidas.

She’s also really big on Instagram, with over seven million followers on the platform. The biological daughter of Richie also made headlines thanks to her relationship with Scott Disick, whom she dated from 2017 to 2020.