Lionel Richie dishes on marital drama and adopting Nicole

In the late 80s, Lionel Richie was riding high.

He had a hugely successful career with numerous hits — including the duet “Endless Love,” one of the biggest singles of all time — and a multi-platinum album in “Can’t Slow Down. He’d also co-written “We Are The World” with Michael Jackson, and it sold over 20 million copies.

However, his marriage to Brenda Harvey was on shaky ground. They had separated, although very few people knew.

In June 1988, Richie paid a visit to his girlfriend, Diane Alexander, when Harvey appeared on the doorstep. What followed was “the most awful screaming match of my life,” the 76-year-old singer remembers in his new memoir, “Truly” (HarperOne, out tomorrow).

Richie thought he could defuse the situation by leaving, believing Harvey would follow. She did, but she later returned and resumed the argument. Police were called. Charges were brought and then dropped.

On top of the romantic strife, Richie had other worries. He needed risky throat surgery and had been told he might never sing again. His father was also dying. The Grammy winner decided to take a year off.

“It would soon become three years and then some,” he recalls in the book.

During his hiatus, Richie realized he was actually having a nervous breakdown and struggling with depression.

The “Hello” singer had long known he had ADHD, and a therapist helped him understand how a person with ADHD can struggle with slowing down.

“The time had come to get face-to-face with myself — with my deepest, true feelings,” he writes. “All of them.”

Richie reached out to several father figures — including Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Poitier, and Gregory Peck — for guidance. He writes that Peck gave the best advice about his matrimonial soap opera.

“You can’t upstage the scandals of Hollywood, Lionel,” Peck intoned. “A messy divorce is just another day in Hollywood.”

It helped put things in perspective. “The story became the scandal of my century,” Richie writes. “It took on a life of its own. Thankfully, there was no social media.”

The “Say You, Say Me” singer also writes movingly about his childhood growing up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, amidst Jim Crow laws.

He remembers attempting to drink from a water fountain reserved for “WHITES ONLY” as a young boy, only to hear white men approach his father and call him the “n” word.

“They were saying words to the effect of, ‘Get your n—er boy away from the fountain. Can’t you read?” Richie recalled, with the racist thugs trying to egg on his father, who did not respond.

Years later, Richie asked his father about the incident, who told him: “I had two choices that day — whether to be your father or to be a man. I chose to be your father because I wanted to be here to see you grow up.”

Richie eventually divorced Harvey and married Alexander, and they had two children together, Sofia, now 27, and Miles, now 31.

While married to Harvey, he’d also adopted Nicole, now 44.

The “Stuck on You” singer first noticed Nicole as a toddler dancing on stage at a Prince concert by herself. He knew her parents, who were both musicians, were undergoing problems and were struggling to maintain stability for the toddler.

Harvey suggested they step in and become foster parents and Richie found himself immediately connected.

“In short order, this little girl became the light of my life,” he movingly writes, noting that eventually they made it legal and adopted “the cutest, most adorable little girl.”

His marriage to Alexander eventually fell apart. He writes that she despised show business and did not want her husband going on tour or talking about business at home. They divorced in 2004.

The Oscar winner unexpectedly found love again in 2014 when he interviewed a woman for a job as a French tutor for his kids. After walking her back to her car, saw her friend, Lisa Parigi, sitting in the back seat.

“That was it,” Richie gushes. “Thunder rolled. Lightning struck.” The two never married but are still together today.

Naturally, there are many friendships with various celebs, including Michael Jackson, whom he first met when The Commodores would open up for the Jackson 5, and Michael was only 12.

Richie attributes Jackson’s death in 2009, aged 50, to “pain” — physical pain connected to the burns he suffered while filming a Pepsi commercial, “issues with his nose and the surgeries,” and existential pain.

“The pain of having too much success,” he writes, “the pain of not learning the lessons of adulthood because of a lost childhood … He couldn’t put the pieces of a normal life together, and so he retreated to a life of fantasy and make-believe — a world he created and lived in.”

Nowadays, Richie is happy, touring, racking up accolades, and appearing on “American Idol,” which he’s been a judge on since 2018.

He’s also an avid gardener. His kids have nicknamed him “Lionel Scissorhands” because he’s constantly trimming hedges.

Not only does he tend his garden, but he also shows up “once or twice a week at the homes of my kids, keeping things in good order.”

Richie ends the book on a sweet note, acknowledging his extraordinary career but being most proud of his children and three grandchildren.

“The test of life comes at the end,” he writes, “when you take stock and know in your heart that you have loved deeply, purely and truly.”