Nicole Richie

Nicole Richie (born September 21, 1981) is an American actress, author, socialite, celebutante, singer, and television personality. The adopted daughter of soul singer Lionel Richie, she is perhaps best known for her role in the Fox reality television series The Simple Life, alongside fellow socialite and best friend Paris Hilton.

Nicole Richie was born Nicole Camille Escovedo in Berkeley, California. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest in November 2005, Richie stated that she doesn't publicly identify her birth parents "for confidentiality reasons," and that they were friends of Lionel Richie and his wife Brenda before her birth. At first, Lionel became her guardian. Then at age 2, Nicole went to live with Richie and his wife, Brenda Harvey, who began to raise her as their daughter. When she was three years old, Nicole began attending weekly sessions with a psychotherapist and remained in therapy throughout her childhood. She was legally adopted by the Richies when she was nine. Shortly after the adoption was formalized, Lionel's affair with another woman became public knowledge. The Richies went through a highly-publicized, bitterly acrimonious split, and as a result, indulged Nicole's every whim. "Their way of making me happy was to say yes to everything I wanted, but I don't think a little girl should have that much freedom," said Richie in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine. Nicole has two younger siblings, Myles (born 1994) and Sofia (born 1998).

In 2003, Nicole Richie and best friend Paris Hilton starred in Season 1 of the reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas. The series debuted on Fox on December 2, 2003, to high ratings. The premiere episode drew 13 million viewers, increasing Fox's Adults 18-49 rating to 79%. In Season 2, The Simple Life 2: Road Trip, the girls traveled the South driving a pink pick-up and living in a trailer. The girls had no money, credit cards or cell phones and were required to work various jobs during their trip to earn money. Their jobs included farm workers, mermaids in an underwater show, hotel maids, sausage makers, crawfishers, working for a baseball team, working in a beauty salon, Deputy Sheriffs, and working on a cattle ranch. The girls also stayed with different families or in trailer parks and on one occasion, a nudist resort.

In late 2005, Fox chose not to renew The Simple Life, explaining that they didn't see a place for it in their schedule. A month later, cable network E! picked up the series for its fourth season. The Simple Life 4: "Til Death Do Us Part", followed the girls as they traveled around California, acting as wife and mother to various families, though both would do tasks separately and not be seen together on screen.

The Simple Life 5: The Simple Life Goes To Camp, debuted on E! on May 28, 2007, with Hilton and Richie reconciling on Richie's birthday in the season opener. For Season 5, Hilton and Richie worked as counselors at Camp Shawnee. The camp was host to five different specialty groups: Wellness Camp, Pageant Camp, Couples Camp, Survival Camp and Drama Camp, with two episodes focused on each specialty group.

Although Season 4 was a hit for E!, drawing nearly one million viewers per episode, Season 5 saw a sharp decline in ratings. While the premiere episode and ones that followed during this season drew about the same viewership, by the 7th episode the ratings had declined to around 700,000 viewers. It was announced on July 30, 2007 that the show would not be renewed for a sixth season. In July 2008, plans were announced to turn Richie's 2005 novel, The Truth About Diamonds, into a television series