

Nicole’s biological parents, Peter Escovedo and Karen Moss, were also heavily involved in the music industry. Their careers kept them on the road a lot and oftentimes kept their 2 year old toddler, Nicole, bouncing from home to home of relatives.



Sheila E. expressed gratitude and pain of “losing” Nicole in her memoir, “The Beat Of My Own Drum”:

Via NYDaily News: When the [Prince] tour ended, she and her family took up Lionel Richie’s offer to stay in an unused wing of his Bel Air mansion. The littlest member of the Escovedo tribe was her brother Peter’s 2-year-old daughter, Nicole. Her brother had broken up with the child’s mother, Escovedo’s assistant Karen, but everyone remained close.

Lionel’s wife, Brenda, insisted that the little girl stay with her whenever Karen was on tour with Escovedo. “As a single working mom, Karen was extremely grateful, but very torn,” Escovedo writes. “If Nikki stayed where she was, living rent-free, then Karen could earn enough for their future without disrupting her child’s life.”

Then Richie’s wife Brenda, who had been hungering for a child, suggested adopting Nicole. “Lionel … would do anything to keep Brenda happy,” Escovedo writes.

The Richies convinced Peter and Karen to give up their child. “The heartbreaking part is that once Nicole Escovedo legally became Nicole Richie, it felt like we lost her. We all lost her,” says Escovedo.

HERE’S WHERE THEY ARE TODAY>>>