The story has been building in the tabloids for months, and now, the supermarket gossip mongers are claiming that Nicole Richie's marriage to Good Charlotte rocker Joel Madden has gotten so bad that she doesn't see any other way to fix things other than to file for divorce. According to the latest gossip news updates, the hard drinking judge on The Voice Australia has no intention of splitting with his wife, no matter how miserable she is. Despite the reports that Joel is deadset on making things work with Lionel Richie's daughter, The Madden Brothers singer has also been said to be leaning on ex-girlfriend Hilary Duff, who recently split with her husband Matt Combie, when he's not trying to convince the mother of his children to take him back.
While they have done their best to ignore the rumors, the constant chorus of voices insisting Nicole Richie and Joel Madden's marriage is all but over just will not seem to go away.
A source claiming to be close to the couple reveals in the June 1 issue of OK! Magazine that Joel already checked out months ago -- abusing alcohol to keep form having to face the problems in his relationship:
"Joel's been drinking a lot.
"He used to help get the kids ready in the morning, but lately, if he's up, he's hungover and not motivated."
Unfortunately for Nicole, however, a friend tells Like & Style the minute she told Joel she wanted to end things out right, he let her know that he wasn't the type of guy that really believed in divorce -- drunk or not:
"Joel doesn't want a divorce.
"He's trying everything he can to get Nicole to change her mind. He wants to work things out. He keeps suggesting that they try couples therapy again."
According to the spy, Madden let his wife know point blank that if she really wanted to divorce him, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that the process was just a painful for her as possible:
"He has a lot of dirt on Nicole and he's not afraid to use it, especially if it's going to stop her from divorcing him.
"He's made it very clear to Nicole that he has no problem playing dirty. If she divorces him, he will put her through the wringer."
The informant that OK! spoke to points out that Joel's wedding vows haven't kept him from rekindling his relationship with former girlfriend, Hilary Duff, in recent weeks, however:
"They text and talk all the time.
"Until recently they kept their distance out of respect for their partners.
"But that's changed since Hilary filed for divorce from Mike [Combie] and Joel is struggling with Nicole."
Let's just hope that Cameron Diaz and her new husband Benji can help these two through whatever may or may not being going on in the relationship, before it truly is too late.
