Good Charlotte - Madden And Richie Open New Playground

GOOD CHARLOTTE star JOEL MADDEN credited his partner NICOLE RICHIE with inspiring him to be more charitable as the generous couple opened a new playground in Los Angeles.

The duo pledged to raise $35,000 (£22,000) to build the play park in 2008 through their Richie-Madden Children's Foundation - and on Tuesday (09Feb10) they delighted children by officially opening the centre, with the help of Madden's twin brother Benji.

Richie says, "When we first started coming here, there were no kids outside. To see the place come to life and have a place to come outside and be kids, and have their imaginations run wild, it's really awesome."

And Madden insists Richie has been instrumental in encouraging their charitable efforts.

He tells Tonic.com, "I've always wanted to (give back), never had the opportunity. I don't know if people ever knew that I was into it. I tried to get involved with Unicef, but it seemed hard to get involved. It was hard to get through to people. But over the last three years... I feel like it's Nicole (who has made it happen). She just for some reason gets through to people.

"It's become just a very big part of our life. It's something that we expect of ourselves and of our family... And I think it's important that our kids grow up around something. Some families have a family business... We wanted to have a foundation that they're responsible for, that they have to be a part of - that they'll grow up with and it will just be something that they do, just like anything else that's expected of them, because that's what we do. That was the whole idea of it."