Lionel Richie reflected on his daughter's reality TV past and how it impacted him as a dad.
Lionel Richie's life isn't exactly about to get simple. The 74-year-old performer and American Idol judge is afraid of what's to come now that his daughter, Nicole Richie, and her longtime pal, Paris Hilton, have teased their return to reality TV.
The notorious besties made a name for themselves more than 20 years ago on The Simple Life, and now are preparing for a comeback.
"They haven't changed. Let me tell you something, those two scare me just standing next to each other," Lionel teased of Nicole and Paris to ET's Denny Directo at the finale of ABC's American Idol on Sunday. "And I don't know if the world knows this, they started this mess, and I was the first guinea pig daddy to go along with this."
Lionel reflected on how Paris and Nicole handled the drama back in the day, saying, "When they first started doing things like driving down the freeway backwards and I kept saying, 'What are you guys doing?' [they'd say] 'It's reality television, Dad!' And now these two are back together, oh my god, world, hang on to your seat. Thank god I'm older and my medication will get me through this next phase of our lives."
On a more serious note, the proud dad added, "I'm very happy for both of them."
Paris and Nicole teased their upcoming project last week when they created a joint post on Instagram showing a TV experiencing some serious static, only interrupted by the familiar sound of their voices reciting some of their iconic TSL catchphrases.
"New Era. Same Besties. 👯♀️ Coming soon to Peacock," they captioned the post.
The Simple Life ran for five seasons from 2003 to 2007 on both Fox and E! It followed Paris and Nicole as they tried their hand at careers ranging from farm work to waitressing. It was briefly canceled by Fox in 2005 after an infamous falling out between the stars, but brought back to the last two seasons on E!.
"Paris and Nicole are so excited to be teaming up again," a source recently told ET of the new project. "The show is going to play on nostalgia. They aren't going to be leaving their families and going somewhere remote in the same way that they did on The Simple Life, but the show will have a reunion type of feel."
The source added, "Working together again was an obvious thing for them to do and a long time coming. They were just looking for the right partner and the right streaming network to do so. They have a great vibe together and can't wait for their fans to see them back in action."
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