Nicole Richie quickly rose to fame after she was cast alongside her longtime friend, Paris Hilton to star in their own reality television series. Today she’s broken away from her controversial past and become a doting mother, wife, author, actress, style icon and fashion designer. As the adopted child of soul singer Lionel Richie, she was destined to live a life of luxury, but the success she’s built today as a businesswoman was all the result of her hard work and dedication. The House of Harlow designer is married to musician Joel Madden with two children, Harlow and Sparrow. Nicole’s life has been pretty hectic ever since she was a child and she’s essentially grown up in the eye of the public. Her and Joel work hard to keep their personal life private these days, but we’ve managed to dig up a few interesting facts. Here’s 12 things you probably didn’t know about Nicole Richie!
11. Figure Skater
As a child growing up she didn’t dream of becoming a reality star or Hollywood fashionista — she wanted to be a figure skater! She trained eight hours a day and competed on a national level. Today, she credits figure skating for her interest in fashion. “I was a figure skater my whole life. My dad’s costume designer, Edna, would make my figure skating outfits when I would compete, and she urged me one day to go to her studio downtown, and she showed me how everything worked,” said Nicole. “It was when Nancy Kerrigan won an Olympic medal wearing Vera Wang that I was introduced to the designer world. Edna said to me, ‘You have all these ideas, why don’t you come in and design everything yourself?’ I was nine or 10. I went to stores and bought charms with strips of velvet to make chokers.” Nicole was considered an extremely intelligent and gifted child. She also took on extra circular activities like learning the cello, violin and piano.