The holidays are extra special for Nicole Richie and Joel Madden.
On December 11, 2025, the former reality star and the Good Charlotte vocalist celebrated their milestone 15th anniversary.
Since they started dating in 2006, the couple has welcomed two kids together, daughter Harlow Winter Kate, who was born two years before they tied the knot and is now 17 years old, and son Sparrow James Midnight, who was born in 2009.
Revisit Nicole and Joel's family milestones through the years with their relationship timeline below.
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© Getty ImagesEarly days
Nicole and Joel met at a party when they were 25 and 27 years old, respectively, and they first sparked romance rumors when they were spotted together in December 2006 at the Roosevelt Hotel bar in Hollywood.
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© InstagramStarting a family
A few months out from the first anniversary of when they first started dating, Nicole confirmed she and Joel were expecting their first baby together, telling Diane Sawyer in an August 2007 interview that she was about four months pregnant at the time.
On January 11, 2008, they welcomed their first child, their daughter Harlow. And though Nicole and Joel have always kept sharing photos of their children publicly to a minimum, when Harlow celebrated her milestone 13th birthday in 2021, Nicole shared a photo of her at three months old and wrote: "Here you are at 3 months old. Today you are 13. You light up my life with your presence, & have no problem lighting up my bedroom with your bright phone screen. Nothing is better than watching you become the young woman you are. I am so lucky I get to be your mom. Happy Birthday to my favorite girl in the world. Now lets go binge watch season 3 of Greys."
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© GettyGrowing their family
Just over a year after welcoming Harlow, in February 2009, Joel confirmed that Nicole was pregnant with their second child, in a since-deleted blog post. They welcomed their baby boy Sparrow on September 9, 2009.
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© Getty ImagesTying the knot
In February 2010, Joel confirmed that he had popped the question to Nicole, writing on Twitter (now X) that they had "been engaged for a while." They tied the knot in December of that year with about 130 guests in attendance at Nicole's father Lionel Richie's Los Angeles estate.
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© Rodin Eckenroth,GettyThe family's red carpet debut
The Madden-Richie family have only done a handful of public appearances together in the past, but in April 2024, they proved just grown up the kids are already when they stepped out for the premiere of Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, alongside Lionel, his girlfriend Lisa Parigi, and his ex-wife Brenda Harvey-Richie, Nicole's adoptive mom.
