Lionel Richie has opened up about a dramatic confrontation between his then-wife, Brenda Harvey, and Diane Alexander, the woman he was seeing at the time, in his new memoir Truly: An Inspirational Journey Through the Life of a Musical Legend, published on September 30. The 76-year-old singer details the love triangle that led to Brenda's arrest in 1988 on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, resisting arrest and battery.
Richie, who married Brenda in 1975 and welcomed their daughter Nicole in 1983, wrote: 'What very few people knew was that Brenda and I were separated. I got a place at the beach, and I was hiding out there, trying to be alone, trying to decompress somehow, because it was killing everyone.' He recalled driving to town one morning to see Diane, when Brenda arrived at the door, leading to 'the most awful screaming match of my life'.
After the confrontation, neighbours called the police, and charges were brought but later dropped. Richie told police he was kicked in the stomach by Brenda. He reflected: 'The most painful part, the tragedy of our lives, was that Brenda was heartbroken.' Richie and Brenda divorced in 1993 after 18 years of marriage. He married Diane in 1995, and they had two children, Miles and Sofia, before divorcing in 2004.
