The 42-year-old actress also shared with Jimmy Fallon the special name that Prince gave the pet.
Nicole Richie has long been known as a lover of animals and it seems that Prince is to thank for getting her started.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 42-year-old actress shared that she has a new cat in her life, Lavender Bumblebee, and discussed her affinity for all animals, including ferrets, which she copped to illegally smuggling into California from Nevada in her youth.
While talking about her array of pets and their equally intriguing monikers, the Great News star confirmed that it was the "Purple Rain" hitmaker who kicked off her now decades-long love affair with pups.
"Prince got me my first dog," she told Jimmy, 49, as the audience let out a synchronized "aww." In response, the SNL alum asked how she remembers something like that, to which she had a hilarious and brutally honest retort.
"I remember because the dog's name was God. I did not name the dog, obviously," Nicole laughed. "I was very young. I was around -- I was around four but that was my first dog."
Since that first dog many moons ago, Nicole has certainly not slowed down on taking in other animals. According to her Instagram page, she and husband Joel Madden currently have at least two German Shepherds, several chickens and a bearded dragon.
In a post back in 2021, she even showed off her close relationship with her reptile, snapping a pic of the animal climbing up her collar and neck and sharing it to Instagram.
"Being a working mom is so hard," she wrote.
If the couple's house wasn't wild enough with the animals, Nicole and her Good Charlotte band member hubby, 45, share two children, 16-year-old Harlow and Sparrow, 14. While the pair has done their best to keep their kids out of the spotlight growing up, Nicole's daughter and son couldn't help but show up to support their mom at the premiere of her new film, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.
On the red carpet in early April, Harlow bore a striking resemblance to her mom while Sparrow took after his dad in photos from the event. The family of four also posed for pictures alongside the teens' grandfather, Lionel Richie, his girlfriend, Lisa Parigi, and their grandmother, Brenda Harvey-Richie.
Their family will soon grow by one more too as Lionel's younger daughter, Sofia Richie Grainge, is currently expecting her first child, due early summer. ET spoke with Nicole and her pop-star dad, 74, at the Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead premiere and they could hardly contain their excitement over welcoming a new baby girl into the family.
"[Sofia's] bumping along... right now we're just waiting for the baby to arrive," Lionel shared with ET at the time. "Pop-pop is ready, make no mistake."
Nicole is a first-time aunt on her own side of the family -- her husband's twin, Benji Madden, is married to actress Cameron Diaz and the pair shares two sons of their own -- and said that she may be more excited than her own little sister, whom she said she loves "more than anything" in an Instagram post back in 2023.
"I'm beside myself, I don't even know what to say," the mom of two said. "I have to, like, really contain all of my excitement."
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