Back in January, Sofia Richie Grainge announced that she and her husband, Elliott Grainge, were expecting their first child with a photo shoot in Vogue. Now, four months later, the model and TikTok star is approaching her due date, which she emphasized Thursday with a bare-belly selfie she posted to her Instagram stories, along with a sweaty-face emoji. According to her father, Lionel Richie, Baby Grainge is coming soon, even if Sofia is getting a little impatient.
At a Manhattan gala for the King’s Trust on Thursday, a charity founded by King Charles III, the elder Richie told Vanity Fair that the family is looking forward to their new addition. “I’m excited,” he said. “We’re just waiting now! But I love the fact that she’s getting antsy and bored.”
Richie first became a grandfather in 2008, when daughter Nicole Richie and her husband Joel Madden had their daughter, Harlow, who is now 16. Her brother, Sparrow, followed in 2009. But the singer added that seeing his younger daughter become a mother is stirring up different emotions.
“You know what? I can’t take it. I just can’t take it,” the singer said with a laugh. “As I told the kids, it’s one thing when the kids have babies—that’s great! But now the baby is having a baby. I mean, this is the youngest, and it’s fantastic.”
Richie said he was also happy to take on a paternal role with the singers he has mentored through his six seasons as a judge on American Idol and the students he has helped support through his work with the King’s Trust. “It’s such a wonderful thing,” he said of the trust. “I can’t stop doing it because we keep getting these kids to show up for. I’m now Uncle Lionel. Between Uncle Lionel and Papa Lionel [on American Idol], I’m doing alright.”