Nicole Richie is clarifying a recent revelation about her daughter’s name. Earlier this week, during the celebration of her daughter’s 18th birthday, the former reality TV star stirred up some attention when she seemed to suggest that her teenage daughter, Harlow Winter Kate, now goes by a different name: Kate Madden.
In addition to Kate, Nicole and her husband Joel Madden, whom she married in 2010, are also parents to their son Sparrow, who is 16 years old.
When speaking with People about the January 12 post celebrating Kate, which included her Instagram handle “katemaddennn,” Nicole confirmed that “she goes by her middle name” and added that “she has her whole life.” When asked if she had noticed the messages from fans in the comments section reacting to the apparent name change, she simply said, “I didn’t look, but it makes sense … she goes by her middle name.”
The post, captioned “18 years of you,” featured a collection of rare photos of Kate throughout the years, including more recent images of her with pink and black hair on various occasions.
The comments section quickly filled with supportive messages, with her dad Joel writing, “That’s my girl,” and her uncle Benji Madden, who is married to Cameron Diaz, adding, “How to make a grown man cry!!! Love you Kate! You’re a bad ass! Never forget it! Happy 18!!”
Nicole and Joel’s children are now both teenagers, and when talking about this milestone to People last year, Nicole shared, “I very much remember I think now that I’m seeing my kids at an age where I remember everything from that age, so they’ll be telling me stories of whatever the comings and goings of them and their friends.”
She continued, “It sounds exactly like what I was going through senior year,” adding, “It’s fun. It’s like a TV show.”
Nicole and Joel first met at a party when they were 25 and 27 years old, respectively. Their romance rumors began when they were spotted together in December 2006 at the Roosevelt Hotel bar in Hollywood.
A few months after they started dating, Nicole confirmed she was expecting their first child together. In an August 2007 interview with Diane Sawyer, she revealed she was about four months pregnant at the time. Just over a year later, in February 2009, Joel confirmed that Nicole was pregnant with their second child in a since-deleted blog post. They welcomed Sparrow on September 9, 2009.
In February 2010, Joel confirmed he had proposed to Nicole, writing on Twitter (now X) that they had “been engaged for a while.” The couple got married in December of that year with around 130 guests attending at Nicole’s father Lionel Richie’s Los Angeles estate.