365 days ago a rumor made the rounds about Nicole Richie and Joel Madden breaking up over her Quibi series. A year is a long time, so Gossip Cop is looking back on this story to see how it panned out.
Can’t Have It All
According to OK!, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden were heading toward a divorce over her new Quibi series Nikki Fre$h. A source said, “When a woman steps back out after dedicating years raising her babies, her husband – especially if he’s famous in his own right – often can’t cope with being left to do the school run.” The romance was gone, and a so-called tipster said “things could get very nasty for them, especially when it comes to money and the kids.”
It’s not hard to see antiquated gender expectations oozing out of this story. The Simple Life star has been a very successful fashion mogul over the last decade, so this Quibi series was the tip of the iceberg in her schedule. Madden was promoting his wife’s show and accompanying rap album, and a source close to the couple confirmed to Gossip Cop that this story was baseless.
What Ended Up Happening?
The romance didn’t die between Richie and Madden, so this story was false after all. Madden and Richie celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2020, and are still as close as ever.
What didn’t survive the year was Quibi. The premium streaming service was seemingly doomed from the start and shut down after just six months. Its demise caused numerous tabloid rumors about Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth’s marriage coming to an end, which was similarly bogus. Apparently working with or without Quibi means marriages are in danger.
Other Phantom Divorces
This is hardly the first time OK! incorrectly predicted a divorce. It claimed Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel were splitting up in 2017, yet they’re still together. It missed the mark when it claimed Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford were divorcing in 2018.
In a similar story to this one, it claimed Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were on the brink of divorce because Lively was sick of not working. They didn’t break-up, so the tabloid switched its story to say they had worked it out after all. You can’t work through issues that didn’t exist in the first place.
Richie and Madden have lasted over 20 times longer than Quibi, so this outrageous story looks even worse in hindsight. Since the two are still together, we know the story was made-up.
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