Born Joel Reuben Combs in
Waldorf,
Maryland, his father left on
Christmas Eve when Madden was 15 years old. This increased financial problems for the family, causing Madden to take numerous
odd jobs to
help with the family finances. Madden has a twin brother named
Benji (who is older by five minutes), an older brother named
Josh, who is a
DJ, and a younger sister,
Sarah, who sings for
the band Her Daily
Obsession. He and his twin brother legally changed their last
name from Combs, their father's last name, to Madden, their
mother's maiden name.
[edit] Music career
He cites the bullying by his high school peers as
inspiration for much of
Good Charlotte's lyrics on their self-titled debut album,
Good Charlotte, as well as on their second album,
The Young and the Hopeless, especially the song "The Anthem."
[edit] Other endeavors
Madden and his brother were
MTV VJ's for awhile when they co-hosted the late night rock
Music countdown
show All Things Rock on
MTV. Madden also appeared on the
practical joke television
show Punk'd. The first
time was when he and his brother saw his Range
Rover had crashed
on top of a
Volvo while being towed, a prank
set up by
Ashton Kutcher. The second time was when he pranked
Michelle Trachtenberg by being blamed for driving into a parking
garage, without knowing a low
water pipe was hanging.
Madden dated singer-actress
Hilary Duff for 2 ½ years, but their relationship ended in mid-November 2006, supposedly
due to their eight-year age difference (Duff was 19 at the
time of the breakup, Madden was 27).
[1] In
early December of 2006, it was reported that Madden is dating socialite
Nicole Richie.