Nicole Richie’s Daughter Turned 18 and Showed Up to Her Mom’s Premiere as a Fully Formed Goth
The baby whose first photos reportedly sold for around a million dollars in 2008 is now a legal adult attending red carpets with her mother.
Nicole Richie and Joel Madden have two kids together. Harlow Winter Kate Madden, born January 11, 2008, and Sparrow James Midnight Madden, born September 2009. The couple started dating in late 2006, married in 2010, and have been together for nearly 20 years.
The name breakdown: Harlow came from a compromise (Joel is a Jean Harlow fan, Nicole liked supermodel Shalom Harlow). Winter was Joel’s pick because the season felt serene to him. Kate was Nicole’s longtime favorite name, which she thought was too plain for a first name, so they tucked it into the middle.
Kate chose the name herself in first grade. She started telling teachers and classmates to call her Kate, and Nicole and Joel only found out at a parent-teacher conference. Joel on a podcast in March: “She’s been going by her middle name since she was in, like, first grade. She chose it. Everyone who knows her calls her Kate.” Nicole has said the same: “She goes by her middle name. She has her whole life.”
So when Nicole tagged @katemaddennn on the 18th birthday post in January, it wasn’t news to the family. It was just the first time the public clocked it. Kate keeps a private life. Nicole also named two of her fashion lines after her: House of Harlow and Winter Kate.
The movie Kate showed up for is Stop! That! Train!, a super-campy action-comedy disaster parody directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray) and produced by World of Wonder, the studio behind RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The plot: two best-friend train stewardesses, Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), ditch their dead-end gig on the gross “Stank Rail” for the ultra-glam, high-speed Glamazonian Express. Everything is fabulous until a massive “Stormaganza” turns the train into a runaway hurtling toward a crash in Los Angeles. The coach girls have to team up with the snooty first-class crew (Symone, Brooke Lynn Hytes, and other Drag Race queens) and President Gagwell (RuPaul) to save the day.
Think Airplane! meets Hairspray with drag queens, camp, and zero seriousness. Nicole plays a supporting character literally named “Workaholic.” Ensemble includes Sarah Michelle Gellar as herself, Raven-Symoné, and Michelle Visage. The LA premiere was May 18. It hits theaters June 12, 2026. The Trojan Brand Condoms backdrop on the red carpet is on theme for the studio.
Her aunt by marriage is Cameron Diaz, who married Joel’s identical twin Benji in 2015.
