Nicole Richie gets her sense of humour from her father

She told the New York Daily News newspaper's Confidenti@l column: "He and I have very similar senses of humour.

"He's one of my favourite people to have on the show. Like me, he is down to be the butt of any joke as long as it's making people smile and laugh."

The 32-year-old star - who has children Harlow, six, and Sparrow, four, with husband Joel Madden - is very close to her father and always has a good time with the 'Dancing on the Ceiling' singer.

She added: "I'm so comfortable with him. We have that very comfortable banter. He's always down to have fun."

While Nicole is happy to have Lionel on her show, she recently admitted her kids won't be making appearances as they won't even allow her to share pictures of them online.

She said: "They don't even like me sending pictures of them to their grandparents. They definitely wouldn't be happy with me sending it out to millions of people."