For Sebastian Coe, this year’s pinnacle professional gathering was undeniably significant, making the choice of a companion an obvious highlight.

The scene-stealer at the World Athletics Awards 2025 in Monaco was Coe’s entrance, as he arrived accompanied by Diane, the stunning former spouse of Lionel Richie.

The 69-year-old British Olympic legend, now serving as the President of World Athletics, was all smiles for the cameras alongside the 58-year-old American model and fashion designer.

According to insiders, the duo has been romantically involved for several months.

Diane Alexander and the iconic singer Richie, who is now 76, were married for nearly a decade before parting ways in 2004. They share two children: Miles, 31, and Sofia, 27.

Lord Coe, who has been married twice before himself, is said to be very serious about her. 

The new couple met through mutual friends and the former runner could now be on track to wed for the third time. 

The two-time Olympic gold medallist, who won in the 1500m at the Moscow Games in 1980 and then Los Angeles in 1984, beamed as he held his arm tightly around Diane’s waist.

Seb Coe and his new girlfriend Diane Richie arrive for the World Athletics Awards at the Monaco Yacht Club

Lord Coe looked very happy to be on the red carpet with Diane, who was married to Lionel Richie for nine years

Lionel and second wife Diane pictured in 1998. They divorced in 2004 having had two children together

Diane with her two children Miles Richie, 31, and daughter Sofia, 27

Their red carpet debut together came after reports in the US in July that the former middle-distance runner had ‘quietly reunited’ with Los Angeles PR woman Sarah Robarts, 58. 

Seb and Sarah were previously engaged for nine months before splitting in 2023. 

However, they were seen together over the summer. But a source has said claims they got back together this year were wide off the mark and they are friends.

And now it appears that the former Conservative MP, who was a member of the House of Lords for 22 years, has found a new love in Diane Richie, née Alexander.

Lord Coe has four children from his first marriage to Nicky McIrvine but the pair split in 2002. 

He wed journalist Carole Annett in 2011 but separated from her in early 2020.

Diane Richie is understood to have a positive relationship with Lionel as they parent their two children and spend time with their grandchildren since they separated over 20 years ago.

Their 2004 divorce settlement was reportedly $20million and the split was blamed on ‘irreconcilable differences’. 

It was claimed at the time that she had monthly clothes allowance in the thousands of dollars and also had an annual plastic surgery budget.

According to a CNN report in 2004, Nicole allegedly told a judge that as a couple they regularly spent more than $300,000 a month.

In a written declaration published online, she said her own monthly expenses included $15,000 for clothing and shoes, $3,000 for “dermatology” and $1,000 for laser hair removal.

The then 37-year-old also claimed that each month she spent $600 on hair, $250 on nails, $450 on facials and $1,100 on personal training and activities such as pilates.

She also listed annual expenses of $20,000 for plastic surgery plus her son’s $125,000-a-year Colorado boarding school. 

She wrote: ‘(Lionel Richie) and I had an extraordinary extravagant lifestyle.

‘(We) regularly spent in excess of $300,000 a month. We could comfortably afford to spend unlimited sums of money on everything and anything we chose. I had no limit on what I could spend’.

It was not clear from the documents how much she was demanding from Lionel in the divorce, but it was later claimed the settlement was $20million. 

Lionel is said to be worth in excess of $200million, due to an illustrious solo career and also as a member of The Commodores, where he sang Three Times a Lady.

His biggest hits were ‘Hello’, ‘All Night Long’, ‘Say You, Say Me’ and ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ as well as his seminal duet with Diana Ross on ‘Endless Love’.

Lionel and Diane pictured with son Miles and daughter Sofia in a throwback photo shared by Ms Richie in 2020 on Miles’s birthday

Lord Coe appears to have had an on-off relationship with Sarah Robarts (pictured together in 2022), with whom he was engaged. They were rumoured to be back together in July, a claim that has since been denied

Lionel recently recalled the marriage-ending fight between his then-wife Brenda Harvey and Diane, whom he was seeing at the time, in his new memoir: Truly: An Inspirational Journey Through the Life of a Musical Legend.

The book contains little-known stories about his life, including an extraordinary bust up between his first wife and the woman who would become his second spouse.

After the incident, Brenda would be arrested in 1988 on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, resisting arrest and battery.

Lionel was allegedly kicked in the stomach in the fracas at Diane’s apartment in Beverly Hills.

‘What very few people knew was that Brenda and I were separated. I got a place at the beach, and I was hiding out there, trying to be alone, trying to decompress somehow, because it was killing everyone,’ the singer said.

He recalled driving into town one morning and stopping ‘to see Diane’.

‘Shortly after I arrive, there is a knock at the door,’ he recounted. 

‘When the door opens, Brenda is standing there. There is a massive confrontation. Diane is in total shock and I’m trying to leave, to draw Brenda away.’

He was married to first wife Nicky McIrvine, pictured, for 12 years before they split in 2002. She is the mother of his four children – Alice, Peter, Madeleine and Harry

He later married Carole Annett but they split in 2020 

He described the confrontation as ‘the most awful screaming match of my life’ and said it took place in a small entryway.

‘The question is — How to stop it? How do you physically move a tragedy that is exploding in front of you?’ Lionel penned.

He and Brenda eventually left the house, but the Hello hitmaker said his then-wife Brenda ‘went back and resumed the argument’.

The neighbors subsequently called the police and ‘charges were brought and then dropped’.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Brenda was booked on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, resisting arrest and battery.

And Lionel told them he was ‘kicked in the stomach area’ by Brenda during the argument.

In retrospect, the entertainer said the story ‘took on a life of its own’.

‘The most painful part, the tragedy of our lives, was that Brenda was heartbroken,’ he wrote in his book. 

Brenda Richie and daughter Nicole Richie pictured in 1992. She was arrested for allegedly hitting the pop singer and Diane when she found the two of them together in a Beverly Hills apartment

It was added, ‘You never know what you are going to do or feel until you’re in the moment and it’s in your face. None of us had been in this situation.’

And he noted, ‘We all deserved a pass because we didn’t know what the story was going to be. It was just raw and ugly and disastrous. Prior to that morning, I recall there was a cloud of uncertainty as to whether I wanted to try to reconcile and not be separated.’

But after the incendiary fight, he was sure the marriage was over.   

Lionel married Diane two years later but after two children and nine years of marriage, the singer and his second wife divorced.

Diane describes herself online as a ‘talker & Mama to Miles & Sofia’ as well as a ‘homebody, introvert, crier, lupus Warrior and insane plant mama’.