Nicole Richie and Joel Madden’s relationship was so troubled that they not only did they call off their wedding, they were about to break up before their baby was born, claims The Enquirer. Joel was said to be upset with Nicole for refusing to stop working before the birth and was about to end the relationship, but after the baby was born they realized that their problems were insignificant and decided to make it work. The way The Enquirer describes it makes it sound kind of sweet. Still, these two have had a reportedly tumultuous relationship so it’s not likely that everything was magically fixed once newborn Harlow arrived:

“Nicole wouldn’t get off her feet and stop working, despite warnings from friends, family and Joel to take it easy,” said another source.

“She was obsessed with getting the recording of her first CD underway.”

Nicole also threw herself into the couple’s charity - the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation - and became consumed with baby showers and planning the wedding.

“Finally, Joel said enough is enough. He told Nicole that if she wouldn’t listen to him about something as important as their child, the wedding was off,” said the source.

“Nicole was blindsided, but Joel didn’t feel he had any other option. He was ready to walk.”

“Happily, everything changed when Nicole delivered their healthy, 6-pound, 7-ounce daughter at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“Cradling the baby, Nicole looked up into Joel’s eyes and whispered: ‘I’m so sorry. I love you,’” said the friend. “From that point on, all was forgiven and the wedding was back on.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 28, 2008]

It sounds like typical pre-baby stress and maybe Nicole wanted to make sure she had accomplished everything she wanted to beforehand so that she could relax and focus on the baby. There was a story that the wedding was postponed because Nicole was warned not to get too stressed over it while she was pregnant. Joel has pledged to marry Nicole and told Ryan Seacrest that “Obviously, marriage is in our future,” but that he he didn’t “know when or where or how, but right now our priority is our family and is the baby.” Now if they do go through with it they’ll have a little ring-bearer to celebrate with them. Their two dogs are also said to be walking down the aisle in little custom-made costumes.

Harlow Winter Kate Madden has yet to make her first public appearance and everyone is wondering which magazine will get the first photos.

A colleague of my husband’s had his first child last week, and hubs reported the man had “That goofy new dad face” on. Joel Madden just lost 50% of his street cred with this gushing post on his website. It’s absolutely adorable!

Well I am finally home with my beautiful girlfriend and our brand new little daughter. Harlow Winter Kate Madden was born on January 11th 2008 at 3:13pm. She weighed in at 6 pounds and 7 ounces. She is 19 inches long and growing everyday already! She really is a wonderful addition to the GC/DCMA/DEADEXEC family.We are so blessed to have this beautiful little baby in our lives.

I want to thank everyone for all the love and kind words they’ve sentour way. We apologize we werent accepting and gifts/cards/calls at the hospital, but if you’d like to send something, we’d rather you make a donation to the Richie-Madden Foundation, which we started in Harlow Winter’s honor.

She looks so much like her mom its crazy! She eats like a little maniac and shes really sweet. She barely ever cries, even when daddy is changing her diaper, and believe me i suck when it comes to diapers, but I’m learning! I cant wait to show off some pictures, until then, THANKS!! and GOD BLESS…

Joel

It’s clear to me that Joel has discovered already one of the special secrets of daddy-hood - pretend incompetence to get out of changing nappies. I’m assuming it’s not going to take long for Nicole to learn the secret of the mommy-hood: It doesn’t matter how badly it’s done, the man must help!

Another gushing grandfather has also, er, gushed? Lionel Richie has releasea this statement about his granddaughter.

While it may take me a moment to adjust to being called granddad, I am extremely happy and proud of Nicole and Joel.

Lionel added that,

Harlow Winter Kate Madden, the newest and most beautiful addition to the Richie clan, is a lucky little girl. She was surrounded by a great deal of love at that hospital as she entered the world. Nicole and Joel are going to be wonderful parents.

Celebrity Baby Blog

Aww, it gives me the warm and fuzzies.

A friend of Nicole’s says that she won’t be rushing to lose her pregnancy pounds, and that she “quite likes those extra curves.” I think that it’s great she won’t be bowing to pressure to lose the weight, although there almost seems pressure on mums to embrace their weight gain and those extra pounds are a badge of honour. I’m sure she looks great. Actually she probably looks sleep deprived, but that’s nothing a little make up and six weeks sleep can’t fix.

Given all the gushing that’s going about this baby, one would have thought a few pictures have been taken by the proud family? None have surfaced yet - who got the exclusive deal? People? In Touch? Let’s see how much this baby is worth!

Picture note by Celebitchy: Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are shown at the Launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation at Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood on 12/3/07, thanks to WENN.

It looks like it’s no longer neck and neck… or in this case uterus and uterus… between who will give birth first, Christina Aguilera or Nicole Richie. Us Weekly is reporting that Nicole, 26, is in labor at Cedars-Sinai right now. Christina was widely believed to be due before Nicole, though these things obviously aren’t an exact science.

Nicole Richie is giving birth. Joel Madden was spotted walking into the delivery area of L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was overheard saying, “She’s going to start pushing soon.”

Bro Benji is also there. She entered the hospital through a secret entrance late Thursday, a source tells Us.

[From Us Weekly]

Us is also reporting that Nicole’s mom Brenda Harvey, dad Lionel Richie, and half-sister, Sophia have arrived at the hospital, and were escorted by security officers. They did erroneously refered to Brenda as Lionel’s wife- the pair divorced in 1993. But I’m going to assume the rest of the report is accurate, and they’re just so excited over at Us Weekly that they can’t focus. I’m really hoping for a birth-off between Christina and Nicole, a la Katie Holmes and Brooke Shields.

UPDATE BY JAYBIRD: Nicole and Joel’s rep at Handprint Entertainment announced that Nicole has given birth to a baby girl and has already left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with the newborn, a mere hours after arriving. They named their daughter Harlow Winter Kate Madden. She weighed 6 lbs., 7 oz.

“The beautiful healthy baby girl left the hospital with her ecstatic parents,” says the rep, who confirmed the birth to PEOPLE exclusively.

[From People]

Congratulations to Nicole, Joel, and their families!

Nicole Richie is going to pop out baby Madden any day now - and she’s scared of giving birth.

Nicole Richie is terrified of childbirth. The closer she gets to her delivery date the more her anxiety she’s building up. She’s afraid of the pain and obsessing over all the bad things that might happen. To get a grip on herself she’s being treated by the same hypnotist who’s helped her in the past to give up smoking. This specialist has worked with a lot of Hollywood clients who need to deal with dieting or with assorted addictions, including drugs. He’s helping Nicole to relax and stay calm and think positive thoughts as the big day approaches.

Janet Charlton

Nicole Richie is terrified of giving birth, and I don’t think this is unreasonable at all. Next time you see a little newborn baby, which is tiny and cute sure, but not THAT tiny. Think about how big the baby is and then think about the size of the exit passage, then buy yourself a big pack of condoms. Someone should have told Jamie Lynn Spears about this.

Reports are circulating that Nicole Richie and baby daddy Joel Madden have moved in together in Los Angeles, preparing for the birth of their child. Which is really nice, for some reason I just really like this couple. They seem so normal, but waaay cooler than most people.

The wee baby the couple are expecting is a boy, as revealed by Nicole’s father Lionel. I actually think the kid will be a girl, and that Lionel Richie was just trying to throw us off the scent! Can we gamble this online somewhere?

I can’t wait for this baby to be born. Not because babies are cute, but because I’m betting Nicole will lose that baby weight in days. Two weeks tops. And then when Paris Hilton has a baby there will be a big contest to see if she can lose the weight faster. Sure, you might think this is stupid, but you have clearly never been in a room with a group of new mothers. They also compare birth stories. And nipples.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are shown at the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation at Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood on December 3rd. Thanks to WENN.

I don’t want to widely broadcast my naïveté, but I’m starting to be really impressed by Nicole Richie and Joel Madden. I have loudly proclaimed that she’s mean, immature, and likely incapable of any meaningful amount of change. And while I’m not ready to totally take that back yet, I have to say that Nicole (at least when combined with Joel) has consistently impressed me lately. I’m not sure if the two are employing an expert team of PR folk (and if so, give that team’s card to Britney Spears ASAP) or if Joel is just a really good person who wields a surprisingly large amount of influence of Richie. Perhaps he’s her much-needed Svengali. First they donated all of the presents from their baby shower to a local women’s clinic, then they served turkey dinners on Thanksgiving. Now the couple has thrown a Christmas party for L.A.-area homeless kids and their families. The two established a charity in their future baby’s honor called the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation, and the party was their second big outreach (after donating the baby shower gifts) through the foundation.

More than 200 children and their family members enjoyed a “winter wonderland” on the Paramount Studios lot featuring teddy bears, cookies, cupcakes, face-painting, clowns, holiday music, Santa Claus and his elves. Children, selected from the L.A. homeless program Beyond Shelter, were able to choose from a teddy bear mountain of 500 “Cuddle Cub” stuffed bears.

“It was a no-brainer for us to pull this party together for them for the holidays,” Richie, who is pregnant with her first child, said.

“We want to do much more to address the homeless issue, especially where it puts children at risk. But for now, we can at least try to help them have a merry Christmas by giving them teddy bears and getting them fitted for shoes. That’s something we can do right now, today.”

[From US Weekly]

It might be PR spin. Probably. But it’s still really nice, so I’m going to assume it comes from a place of good. It’s not like it matters if Nicole has a good public image or anything. What’s the worst that could happen, it could hurt her career? What career? What does she do? She kind of half-ass participates in “The Simple Life” a few weeks a year, and that show isn’t based on her being a wholesome do-gooder. I’m guessing those maternal/pregnancy hormones have kicked in full-time. I wonder what her friends think of the “new” Nicole. Do you think Paris Hilton was by Nicole’s side, holding one of those metal foot measuring devices and plopping toddler’s feet on it, eyeballing for an exact fit? Well maybe if she could do it drunk. While getting paid to promote a product. Whatever the reasoning, it’s great to see a celebrity that started a charity and is actually doing something with it.

Picture note by Jaybird: Header of Joel and Nicole at the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation at Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood on December 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.

It appears there’s a chance – a chance – that I might have misjudged Nicole Richie’s ability to be a decent parent. I’m not saying I’m totally wrong, but it appears that, if nothing else, fiancé Joel Madden has been a good influence on her. When the two set up the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, I assumed it was just to get some good PR, and detract from Nicole’s DUI and spending 84 minutes in jail while pregnant. A lot of celebs seem to talk about how they’re starting a charity, and then you never hear about it again. That’s what I assumed would happen here. Kind of like Paris Hilton’s peacekeeping mission to Africa that we’ve been hearing about for so long. But it appears that the Richie/Madden duo actually are trying to do some good with their charity – they handed out $200,000 worth of baby goods to 100 needy families through the Los Angeles Free Clinic.

The couple hosted a surprise baby shower Monday for 100 expectant and new moms at the Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood, where they handed out more than $200,000 worth of gifts. “The looks on their faces were priceless,” Richie told reporters after the shower. “Some of them didn’t even believe us [when they saw the gifts]. They thought we were joking.”

The Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, Madden said, was an idea the couple had when they found out they were expecting. “We grew up in Los Angeles,” he said, “and we want our child to be a part of the community, and to know that there’s a responsibility to help the community.” And it’s a family affair. “We named it the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation because we each have families and our families are close, and our family is involved,” Richie said. By her side with his arm stroking her back during moments in the conference, Madden quipped, “We’re lucky that we have families that get along and love each other,” adding, “I think it’s great that our child will grow up as a part of that family.”

Amongst the goodies given to families in need were Baby Bjorn products, cribs, mattresses and toys from Fisher-Price. “Everything they got, we got,” Richie says, “so everything that will be in their nursery, will be in our nursery.”

[From People]

People reported that for Nicole’s baby shower, guests were asked to bring gifts to donate to the charity instead of for the couple – though each guest did bring a book for the baby. I don’t want to sound naive, but I’m pretty impressed. There are few people less in need of baby supplies than celebrities. Nicole still got to have the fun of a shower (and I’m assuming the dumb games involving storks and diapers and such) but they actually managed to do something really great and useful for people in need. Hopefully this is a positive indication that Nicole is maturing and able to think about the needs of others.

Picture note by Celebitchy Nicole Richie is shown on 11/26/07 before having lunch with Paris and Nicky Hilton for publicity purposes.

There was a story that Nicole Richie wasn’t going to invite Paris Hilton to her planned (and postponed) wedding to Joel Madden after Paris asked Nicole if Joel was really the father of her baby. Paris and Nicole haven’t been seen out together since their over-hyped supposed makeup for the sake of their never-ending reality series The Simple Life. It was also thought that Paris was making an obnoxious dig at Nicole when she publicly told Christina Aguilera “Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world.”

Maybe these two have buried the hatchet, or maybe they just realize that they generate more publicity together, because Paris is hosting Nicole Richie’s baby shower this weekend:

According to In Touch, invites just went out for the shower, scheduled to take place at 12:30 p.m. on Sun., Nov. 18, at a Beverly Hills estate.

The party’s being given by Nicole’s mom, Brenda, but sister Sophia and “loving friends” Paris Hilton and Masha Gordon are listed as the official hosts.

Don’t see Paris hitting Party City to pick up supplies? Well, she’s not. Wedding planner to the stars Mindy Weiss is actually handling all the nitty-gritty—such as ensuring Nicole’s favorite foods will be served, including sushi (sorry, Nic, the raw stuff’s just for your buddies), coconut shrimp, lobster, lemon-pepper chicken, fruit and cake.

[From E! Online]

And in case you assumed that Nicole would be collecting all sorts of high-end baby crap like most of the other celebrity moms, she’s not expecting her friends to buy it for her at least. Nicole and her fiance, Joel Madden, have started a nonprofit organization, The Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, and ask that baby shower attendees make donations of needed baby items instead of giving gifts to Nicole. They’re also asking fans to make donations to their foundation, with the items to go to families in need who visit the LA Free Clinic. They plan to start a website with a baby registry for people to purchase items:

Nicole would like to invite friends, family and fans across America to participate in the moms-in-need program and highly publicized baby shower. The Richie Madden Children’s Foundation will create and promote an online registry to inspire the purchases of items for moms and their families in need. Anyone in the country will be able buy from the registry on her behalf for the clinic. The registry link will live on the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation website for at least six months and will be updated regularly based on the needs of the LA Free Clinic and other participating clinics.

[From PDF press release linked from USWeekly]

That’s surprisingly awesome of Nicole and Joel. Add in that Nicole is asking Paris Hilton to co-host her baby shower and she seems to have actually matured a bit. Maybe once the baby arrives she’ll realize what a spoiled brat she’s been her whole life and will start to dedicate most of her time to her new charity.

Photo of Nicole Richie’s shower invite fromInTouch. Nicole Richie is shown out shopping on 10/31, thanks to Splash News. Paris Hilton is shown promoting her Can Can fragrance at Macy’s in Philadelphia on 11/14, thanks to PRPhotos.

Nicole Richie seems to have postponed her planned wedding to boyfriend Joel Madden until after their baby is born in January. There were reports that she was going to marry Joel sometime this month, but it seems like they are going to wait as we haven’t heard much more about it.

This weeks’ National Enquirer claims that Nicole’s dad, Lionel Richie, told her to hold off getting married until after she had the baby. He’s also said to have promised to foot the entire bill:

[Nicole Richie's dad] Lionel Richie keeps advising his fragile princess to postpone the wedding, avoid all the nuptual frenzy and just chill! Said a family insider: “Lionel doesn’t think Nicole can handle the stress, and told her: ‘Baby, in life it’s first things first!’” Knowing Nicole’s vulnerable and worried about delivering a healthy baby, Lionel’s assured her that as Father of The Bride, he’ll spend big bucks for a spectacular wedding whenever she wants it - but right now, he wants her to focus solely on the birth.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, November 12, 2007]

Nicole may be waiting to get married on the advice of her family, but she’s still preparing for the ceremony in little ways. Star Magazine reports that Nicole purchased costumes for her little dogs including a tuxedo for her Shih tzu, Honeychild, and a bridesmaid dress for Foxxy Cleopatra, her Pomeranian. That’s kind of cheesy, but it could also be cute:

[Nicole Richie] recently bought a canine tuxedo for her mutt, Honeychild, and a bridesmaid dress for her Pomeranian, Foxxy Cleopatra, from tony Santa Monica pet store The Wagging Tail. She wants the pooches to walk down the aisle with her when she weds her baby daddy.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 12, 2007]

Maybe the outfits were for Halloween, but since they could also serve as doggie wedding attire, it does sound like she’s planning for her pets to walk down the aisle with her. At least she has a soft spot for her animals considering how nasty and cold she’s rumored to be. Hopefully she’ll feel that way about her baby, too

Nicole Richie is shown in the header image on 10/30/07 shopping. Thanks to Splash News for this picture. She is seen with Honeychild and Foxxy Cleopatra in images found at Celebrity Dog Blog.

Joel Madden and Nicole Richie were recently in Australia while his band, Good Charlotte was on tour there. Madden said he loved it so much that he’s going to look for a condo there. He said he’s interested in spending at least a full season in Australia every year:

Joel said recently: “People keep saying to us ‘how come you spend so much time down there?’ and I just say that it’s the best place in the world.”

He added that they would love to spend a minimum of three months a year down under and are looking to buy a home together: “I’m going to have a look around tomorrow for a place, a nice condo.”

“It’s only one flight man. The lifestyle here is insane.

[From Fametastic]

Anything that keeps Nicole Richie away from the paparazzi for large chunks of time sounds like a good idea to me. Once she has the baby she’ll probably start parading it around LA in little golden strollers and designer clothes like Gwen Stefani did with Kingston.

The big Star cover story about how Nicole Richie is having “Pregnancy Trouble!” isn’t really much more than Richie being worried over Braxton Hicks contractions, which are mild sporadic contractions that are common in pregnancy and nothing to worry about. Six-months-pregnant Richie is said to be “constantly worrying about having a miscarriage,” and “a basket case” after some minor Braxton Hicks contractions in Australia while she was there with boyfriend Joel Madden made her fear that she was having premature labor:

Nicole Richie got the scare of a lifetime while she was thousands of miles away from home in an Australian hotel. The six-months-pregnant star was relaxing in her room with rocker boyfriend Joel Madden, who’s been on his Good Charlotte tour Down Under, when “she felt a deep pain in her lower abdomen like her stomach was seizing up. She believed she was going into labor.”

Although Nicole’s doctor told her it was just a Braxton Hicks contraction (when the uterus “practices” for labor) and perfectly normal, she’s still afraid the baby could be born prematurely. Says the source, “Her stress level is through the roof.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 29, 2007]

The article goes on to quote a doctor who provides a scary picture of how Richie’s baby would be fighting for its life if it were born at this point, as if that’s even an issue. And of course they speculate on what would happen to her unborn baby if she continued to do drugs and alcohol, when it’s pretty clear that she gave all that up when she figured out she was pregnant.

What’s more interesting to me is how Nicole is said to be acting like a total bitch, being typically rude to Joel’s fans and to the help. He’s said to be “mortified” by her behavior. At least she gets a pregnancy pass, but what excuse is she going to have once the baby is out?

Nicole Richie is shown on 10/2/07 carrying a couple of candy bars and walking to her car in Beverly Hills. Thanks to WENN for this photo.

Nicole Richie and fiancé Joel Madden have set a wedding date, and it looks like she could be waddling rather than walking down the aisle.

Nicole Richie is set to marry her lover and the father of her baby, Joel Madden, in a last minute ceremony on 13th October.

Sources in American reveal the couple have decided to tie the knot in a lavish wedding in Laguna Beach, California next month.

The Sun

Well, I can only assume that the date is for this year, I guess organizing a wedding when you are a celebrity is a little different than for us average girls. Instead of getting the best deal for flowers, you’re getting the best deal on the exclusive pictures. Instead of shopping for a dress, you could get your stylist to bring a selection to you. Instead of worrying about being too pregnant and unwell to make those aisle preparations, you can just hire someone to make all the preparations for you and all you have to do is turn up. Looking really nice, or if not just get the exclusive pictures retouched.

Seems to take some of the fun out of it to me!

Nicole is lucky to have all that help – she’s going to be busy undertaking an alcohol education course.

The course consists of 52 hours of group counseling, biweekly face-to-face interviews with counselors and the completion of 12 hours of alcohol education. Attending 12-step meetings is encouraged but not required.

According to the Santa Barbara Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, the program hosts roughly 340 participants at any given time and will set Richie back $1,790, which she is required to pony up herself. Upon completion of the course, she will be eligible to get her driver’s license reissued by the state DMV.

On July 27, she was sentenced to four days in jail, fined $2,048, ordered to complete a minimum three-week alcohol-education course and placed on three years’ probation.

E! Online

Of course, Nicole has been court ordered to participate in the program, probably as part of the deal that got her in and out of jail in 82 minutes. I am impressed that Nicole is taking on more than what her sentence required, it shows a real commitment to staying sober and off the roads.

Nicole seems to be getting her act together, so I’m looking forward to her settling down and going back to her reguar day job of…er, being Paris’ best friend? An ‘It’ girl? What is it she does as a day job?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are shown outside Mr. Chow on 9/28. Thanks to WENN for these photos.