Parenting is not for the faint of heart. This is especially true when your children have a rebellious streak. Lionel Richie knows this firsthand.
He recently appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show and discussed with Drew how the wild ways of his daughter Nicole Richie were very stressful for him. Ironically enough, Drew was also part of the problem, because she and Nicole are good friends. Drew and Nicole had a lot of fun when they were younger but also got into a lot of trouble together.
Lionel Richie is a father of three. He and ex-wife Brenda Harvey adopted Nicole when she was 9 years old. She is the biological daughter of family friends who could no longer financially support her.
Lionel called Drew and Nicole’s friendship "one big ham sandwich." The pair grew up together and are “dear friends.” They created their own “little girl wolf pack."
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Drew agreed with Lionel but did defend herself and Nicole a bit. "I think Nicole and I have figured out how to have so much fun and then pull it together and be, like, really good moms," she said.
"I'm so glad you got it out of your system," Lionel joked. It was not easy for him to live through. "If I lived through that, I can live through anything," he said.
Nicole and Drew were soon joined by another famous wild child, Paris Hilton. Things got even crazier then. Lionel called them "the bitty committee.”
Lionel recalled one time someone called to tell him Nicole drove the wrong way on the freeway. He said he “almost lost consciousness" during that period of his life.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'This is not possible.' All I want to find out is who's going to pay me back all that medication I took. That's all I care about," Lionel joked.
Drew spoke for both herself and Nicole. "Both of us will,” she said.
When asked how he got through Nicole’s rambunctious youth, Lionel had the perfect answer. "I was somewhere between meditation and medication," he recalled.
All kidding aside, Lionel is so proud of both Nicole and Drew. They have become wonderful, strong women and mothers. At one time he thought “there is no way that this is going to transcend over to a family with husbands and kids. No way — and they turned out perfectly,” he said.
"You're doing really well," Lionel affirmed Drew.
