Richie 'scared' by demands

Singer Lionel Richie says he was "scared to death" by reports of his wife's £165,000-a-month maintenance demands.

Diana Richie has filed for divorce and wants a huge slice of his multi-million pound fortune.

Papers lodged with the Los Angeles Superior Court detail her extraordinary spending habits on clothes, shoes, plastic surgery and beauty treatments.

Appearing on BBC1's Parkinson show, Richie performed his new song Just For You.
Parkinson joked: "That sounds like a hit ... and from what we've been reading about your wife and the demands she's making on the maintenance, you're going to need a hit", to which Richie replied: "Several!"

Told that his 37-year-old wife's demands came to two million dollars a year, the star said: "Yes. I heard that, by the way. It scared me to death."

And he laughed: "That's impossible. £165,000. A month. Pounds. Like I said, that's impossible."

Richie said: "I did call her on the phone when I read this and said 'that's a lot of money'."

He said Diana had told him she had not claimed such exorbitant figures.

Talking about their marriage, the singing star said: "It's still in the stages now where we are rounding off to see where we are. You know, marriages go through their ups and downs.

"As I told her before, if it does happen to end, then I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that we are friends at the end. But because we have kids, we have to be friends. It will always be that way. It has to be that way."

Richie's daughter Nicole is now a celebrity herself, appearing with best friend Paris Hilton on reality show The Simple Life.

Told his daughter was now a star, Richie replied: "Better than that. She's bringing home a cheque!"

The interview will be broadcast on BBC1 tomorrow night.