The internet cannot stop talking about Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge’s wedding. In addition to the multiple viral tweets about last weekend’s festivities, we’re getting seemingly endless news coverage of the ceremony, Sofia’s fashion choices, her husband, her dad and even her ex.
But in this nearly all-encompassing conversation, we at Hey Alma think there’s always more room to talk about the fact that Sofia Richie is Jewish!!!
So, here are 18 things to know about Sofia Richie.
1. Sofia was born on August 24, 1998 in Los Angeles to a non-Jewish family.
2. She is the daughter of musician Lionel Richie and model Diane Alexander. She has two older siblings, Nicole and Miles. Look at this beautiful family:
3. She is musically inclined! (Surprise, surprise.)
Her father taught her to sing at age 5 and to play piano at age 7. By age 14, she was taking daily voice lessons with Tim Carter, Beyoncé’s vocal coach.
“It was the best I could have asked for, but there was too much pressure,” she told Billboard. “Everyone had their own idea of what my music should sound like, and I just wanted to be an individual. I stepped back and said, ‘I need to re-evaluate this.’ “
4. Sofia began her modeling career at 14 with a feature in Teen Vogue!
Since then, she has made her New York Fashion Week debut, walked the runways for the likes of Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana and become the face of Madonna’s Material Girl line.
5. She attended Oaks Christian School in Los Angeles before being homeschooled.
6. She made several appearances on her sister’s reality TV show “Candidly Nicole.”
7. Speaking of Nicole Richie, Sofia has called Nicole’s husband Joel Madden of Good Charlotte her “BFF.”
8. Sofia dated Jewish reality star Scott Disick from 2017 until 2020. There is a 16-year age gap between the pair which is, uh… not great.
Part of their romance played out on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and “Flip It Like Disick,” so you can watch them make ill-fated plans about their future:
9. Her favorite song of her father’s is “Ballerina Girl.”
10. Sofia got engaged to Elliot Grainge in April 2022 after a year of dating. Elliot is a self-identifying “nice Jewish boy” who had a star-studded bar mitzvah.
11. Does Sofia have expensive taste? Watch this video to find out:
12. On April 3, 2023, Sofia announced that she had completed her conversion to Judaism.
In an Instagram post, she called it “one of the greatest experiences of my life” and thanks Cantor Nathan Lam of Temple of the Arts of Beverly Hills. As I wrote this week, “it’s important to note that Lam, formerly a celebrity voice coach and a senior cantor at Stephen Wise Temple, one of the largest Reform synagogues in Southern California, has been accused of carrying on a series of inappropriate sexual relationships with congregants and mentees.”
13. You simply have to see her final wedding dress fitting:
14. She had a Jewish wedding! The ceremony included being married by a rabbi under a chuppah, signing a ketubah and doing the horah.
“It was very important to Elliot’s family and to me, now that I’ve converted, that it be a traditional Jewish ceremony,” Sofia told Vogue.
15. She is the first person in human history to look good while being lifted in a chair.
16. Sofia’s dad couldn’t be more happy about her wedding!
“I’ve known Elliot since he was 9 years old. So I know the groom really well,” he explained, adding, “There’s a thing down South we always say: ‘Who’s your people?’ Well, I know his people, so it really is a real wonder to see them in love and just as happy as I’ve ever seen my little girl and Elliot.”
17. You simply have to check out her wedding video:
@sofiagrainge Ill never get over this… now off to my honeymoon 🦋
18. Good Charlotte performed their song “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” at the wedding afterparty. Irony aside, the footage is kind of iconic.
