Nicole Richie has been dodging rumors that she’s expecting a child with her boyfriend of six months, Good Charlotte rocker Joel Madden.
But in the new issue of Nylon magazine, every other topic is decidedly on limits as Richie, 25, opens up about her celebrity status, her drug past and whether she’s a role model.
“I don’t have a clue why I’m famous,” Richie tells the magazine, blaming the media for her omnipresence. “I didn’t make myself famous…You’re doing it. I think people just want to say, ‘Oh, she doesn’t have a job she doesn’t do anything.’ They get off on that. But I do have a job, like everyone else.”
In 2003, Richie entered rehab following a heroin-possession arrest. “When I pictured heroin, I pictured some crazy crackhead with no shoes under a bridge,” she says in the interview. “You never think that is going to be you. And it never was me. I was never under a bridge, and I always had shoes.”
Despite a “chaotic” childhood in which she says her parents gave her too much freedom, Richie does not regret past mistakes. As for setting an example for the one million fans that tune into The Simple Life every week, “I don’t walk around pretending that I’m perfect, so I don’t think anyone should hold me to that,” she says. “The dangerous thing is that there are 16 -, 17 -, 18 –year-olds that people consider to be role models. I’m so happy I wasn’t famous back then…You’d think I was the f—king devil.”
To read more on Nicole’s thoughts about her weight, that infamous Memorial Day party email, and how she was enticed into the world of heroin, check out the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands this week.
