What Is Nicole Richie’s Ethnicity? She Is Bi-racial and Was Adopted

After singer Lionel Richie famously adopted his eldest daughter in 1990, fans have wondered about Nicole Richie’s ethnicity. Of a mixed background, the television personality’s biological parents made the difficult decision of giving her up for adoption when she was a little girl.

When the public was first introduced to Nicole, she became known as Lionel Richie’s eldest daughter. Her father has left his footprint in the sand as a musical legend and reality television judge. However, over the years, Nicole has made a name for herself.

She starred on the reality show “The Simple Life” with childhood friend Paris Hilton, followed in her father’s footsteps and became a reality TV judge, and started a successful clothing line. But in her early years, Nicole was the daughter of parents financially struggling to raise her.

Nicole was born Nicole Camille Escovedo on September 21, 1981, to Peter Michael Escovedo and Karen Moss. She is of Spanish, Creole, and Afro-Mexican origin, with both of her parents involved in the music industry.

Her biological father was a singer, and her birth mother was singer and percussionist Sheild E.’s assistant. When their daughter was still a little girl, Peter— who was friends with Lionel— and Kate came to a difficult conclusion: they could no longer afford to raise their daughter. Lionel said:

“I think we decided that … what we’ll do to kind of give you some stability was we’ll be like legal guardians, but nothing more.”

Nicole was four years old when she met Lionel for the first time. He was attending a Prince concert when he spotted a little girl on stage playing the tambourine. Already friends with her father, Lionel went backstage and offered to welcome Nicole into his home for the rest of the tour while her birth parents worked through their troubles.

In 1986, when Nicole was 5, her famous father wrote the song “Ballerina Girl” for her, which goes, “I’m never gonna break your heart/Never will we drift apart/’Cause all I wanna do/Is share my whole life with you.” At first, Lionel was Nicole’s legal guardian. But when she was 9, the RnB singer and his then-wife, Brenda Harvey, legally adopted the little girl.

In honor of Black History Month in 2022, the “Night Shift” singer opened up about adopting Nicole and how her arrival in his and his ex-wife’s life had been a “Godsend.” According to Lionel, Nicole was just a little girl who needed “a shot,” as he recalled:

“She was used to people coming and going. She looked at me and I’d say, ‘I’m not going anywhere.”

After becoming accustomed to people coming into her life and leaving, the singer recalled promising his little girl that he would never leave her. After Lionel and his ex-wife adopted Nicole, he faced allegations of cheating with fashion designer Diane Alexander, leading to his and Brenda’s divorce.

During the “very interesting time” of Lionel and Brenda’s separation, the former Commodores band member revealed that Nicole was the one who kept him grounded. While speaking about his first wife, Lionel said:

“We didn’t agree on a lot of things, but we did agree on [Nicole].”

Nicole Richie has since made Lionel Richie a grandfather twice after welcoming her daughter Harlow and son Sparrow. However, due to her racial ambiguity, social media users took to Twitter and commented on her race, unaware of Nicole’s Afro-Mexican ancestry.

“All this passing talk today reminded me that Thandiwe and Nicole Richie’s daughters have all their tea,” one person shared. Another person commented, “Neither Nicole not her daughter look black bc Nicole was adopted. There is no blackness at all (sic).”