VIDEO Are Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton still friends? Nicole says…

After starring together in The Simple Life, childhood friends Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton had a very public falling out in 2005.

“It’s no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends,” Hilton announced to People in April 2005. “Nicole knows what she did, and that’s all I’m ever going to say about it.”

They later seemed to patch things up, but their relationship was never again the same — especially as Nicole settled into motherhood while Paris continued doing what Paris Hilton does. So, where do they stand today? According to Nicole, they support each other from a distance.

“I haven’t spoken to her in a while technically, but, if you really want to get into it, my view of a friendship is someone that you don’t necessarily have to talk to you every day,” the mother-of-two said on Watch What Happens Live this week. “It’s somebody that you can call when you need them, and they’re just going to be there. So, time as whether I’ve spoken to somebody is really… It doesn’t really matter in my opinion.”

Nicole then summarized with the “short answer” as to whether she and Paris are still friends: “I haven’t spoken to her in a while, but we are very good friends. I love her and I love her family. I have a lot of respect for her.”

She added that she doesn’t have any regrets about participating in The Simple Life, even though it was believed to be a reason for the rift between the stars.

“The Simple Life was the most fun time of my life,” Nicole told Andy Cohen. “I was 20 and I had a television network, which was Fox, come up to me and say, ‘Do you want to take a trip for 28 days and get paid for it?’ I was like, ‘Okay!’ It was great. It was like backpacking. It was with your best friend and you got paid for it and it was fun!”

The 32-year-old fashion designer is set to return to her reality TV roots next week for VH1’s Candidly Nicole. The show premieres on Thursday, July 17 at 10/9c.