Joel Madden Shares Rare Throwback Photo of Son Sparrow on His 11th Birthday: 'I Love You'

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7SwhbJoZG/Joel Madden/Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7SwhbJoZG/Joel Madden/Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7SwhbJoZG/Joel Madden/Instagram

Happy birthday, Sparrow James Midnight!

Joel Madden's younger child with wife Nicole Richie turned 11 years old on Wednesday, and the Good Charlotte rocker marked the occasion with a father-son snapshot posted to his Instagram account.

The rare throwback image depicted a younger Sparrow perched atop his dad's shoulders, with a city view shown below them in the background.

"Happy 11th Birthday to my baby boy! I love you Sparrow ❤️," Madden, 41, captioned the post. "Here's to many more years of being best friends and me embarrassing you😎."

Among the sweet comments was one from Joel's twin brother Benji Madden, who wrote, "My boyz! ❤️❤️❤️😎🙏 HBD Sparrow — I got lucky being your uncle you're the best dude 😎❤️."

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Stars Whose Kids We Rarely See

While Madden and Richie don't often discuss their children or share photos of them on social media, they do offer occasional glimpses into their life as a family of four. (The pair, who wed in December 2010, are also parents to 12-year-old daughter Harlow Winter Kate.)

In May, Madden posted a black-and-white photo of his family sitting on the steps of the United States Capitol building, using the opportunity to wish a happy Mother's Day to his wife — "one of the best to ever do it."

"Nicole we love you and I Thank you," he wrote in honor of the actress and fashion designer, 38. "You take care of us all, and you make our house a home 👑❤️"

"And To all the moms out there holding it down for your families in these difficult times, we all say thank you and we hope you are getting all the flowers today, you deserve them💐🌺🌸🌼🌻🌷," Madden added.

Richie opened up in March during a virtual appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan about how one of her parenting approaches has shifted as the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold in the U.S.

"They're in homeschool so they're doing their Zooms," she said. "It's weird, I spent 10 years preaching no screens and now they've become kind of a lifeline over here. It's literally the opposite of what I've been telling them. They're doing school but they're also doing their extracurricular activities and they're communicating with their friends."

"They really need that time. They need that time away — I'm sure a lot of moms feel like they need time away from their kids too, but it's true, a lot of time kids need time away from us," added The Simple Life alum. "They want to talk about other things, and I think they're doing a really great job."

"Big picture," Richie told hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, is that "we are healthy and we're home and that's the most important thing you can do right now, stay home. We're home."

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