Nicole Richie and husband Joel Madden have been the subject of countless divorce rumors for months. Some gossip rags have run with unnamed sources swearing up and down that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are on the verge of a split.

“If it wasn’t for the kids, they’d be divorced already,” one such “source” said.

Then came the news and accompanying pictures that showed moving vans parked outside the couple’s home, as well as Joel Madden shopping for furniture alone.

Now Nicole Richie has someone to speak up for her in this rumor flurry: Her famous dad.

“It’s completely untrue,” Lionel Richie told Hello Magazine.

Well, how does he explain the moving vans?

“They’ve bought a new house and the moving van was pulling up at their old house to move to the new one,” the singer said. “Hence the story they are breaking up.”

Lionel Richie went to visit his daughter and her husband at their new place, which they moved into to be near Madden’s brother and his new wife, Cameron Diaz.

“I went over to the new place recently and there were the Pup-Pups – otherwise known as my grandchildren – running around all excited showing me their new yard and their new pool,” he said.

Why leave it to Daddy to clear up the rumor mess? Lionel wonders the same thing.

“‘Aren’t you going to clear [the rumors] up?’ I asked Nicole. ‘Nah, it’s okay,’ she said. She’s a seasoned Richie.”

Lionel Richie has seen his own share of rumors and scandal in his career.

“But, as I said to Nicole, ‘Rumor you don’t worry about. It’s when they print something and it’s true you need to worry.’”

Nicole Richie has reinvented herself from her wild days opposite Paris Hilton on reality TV. And regarding her marriage, she told Oprah:

“We met and we were partners from day one. And from the second we found out we were going to be parents together, we looked at each other and we said, ‘OK, both of our parents are divorced. We both have had ups and downs with our parents and we don’t really have a strong example of what a healthy family life is. But, we’re recognizing that now, so let’s work at it and let’s go through this together as a team. It’s been great.”