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Nicole Richie had a fiery start to her 40th year around the sun. The actress unwittingly set her hair on fire while blowing out the candles on her birthday cake (decorated with a throwback photo of a young Nicole!) in a video shared on Instagram on Tuesday, Sept. 21. The TV personality took the moment all in stride, captioning the post, “Well… so far 40 is 🔥”
Her famous pals could not handle the birthday video. Actress Zooey Deschanel wrote “Omg” in the comments section, while Queer Eye food expert Antoni Porowski wrote that he felt “awful for laughing I’m sry,” but “also happy birthday!!!” Singer Kelly Rowland wrote that her “heart just dropped!!!!” Amy Schumer echoed Zooey’s sentiments and wrote, “Oh my gawwwd.”
Nicole turned 40 on Tuesday. The birthday homages were aplenty. Her dad, famed musician Lionel Richie, shared a series of photos of his daughter on Instagram and said that she would “always be” his little girl. “It’s showtime !! ⭐️ @nicolerichie You have been rainbows 🌈 and butterflies 🦋 your whole life … but you will always be my little girl, no matter how many birthdays we celebrate 🎉 !!” the musician wrote.
Her little sister Sofia also shared a series of photos with her “big sis” on Instagram on Tuesday. “So lucky to call you my big sis,” she captioned the post. “I love you beyond words @nicolerichie HBD 👸🏼”
And, of course, Nicole’s longtime husband Joel Madden also paid homage to her on Tuesday. The Good Charlotte musician, whom Nicole wed in 2010, shared a series of sweet snapshots of the two on Instagram. “Happy Birthday Nicole❤️ ” he captioned the post. “You’ve made love feel timeless I’ve forgotten how old we are ❤️”
The two share daughter Harlow, 13, and son Sparrow, 12, together. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in August, the former star of The Simple Life reflected on her reality TV past — and revealed whether she would ever let her children foray into that world. “I think it would be a different thing going into it now. It just depends on what it is,” she said. “But if my kids said to me, ‘I want to try this new thing that hasn’t been done before.’ You just say… Well, obviously now they’re preteen, so I’m going to say no. But yeah, if they’re 18 and they want to go do whatever it is, as long as it feels good and authentic to them, I’m fine with it.”