Joel Madden asked Nicole Richie to marry him "every other Tuesday" before she accepted.

The couple married in December 2010, after they welcomed their two children daughter Harlow, four, and two-year-old son Sparrow into the world.

Joel put a lot of effort into convincing Nicole that marriage was the right move.

"My wife is pretty good at rejecting me people don't know this," Joel told Australian radio show Fifi & Jules on Friday. "But I asked her to marry me 10 times before she actually said yes -- I was asking every other Tuesday."

Although Joel clearly succeeded in his quest to wed Nicole, the musician admits that he enacted a crafty scheme to cull her favour.

"I pulled out the kids!" Joel joked. "I said, 'Do you really wanna do this to these kids?' I'm just kidding. I'm passive aggressive."

Joel is currently a judge on Australian singing talent competition The Voice.

Nicole has spoken previously about how much she pines for him when he's away.

"Of course, I really miss Joel when he's away filming The Voice in Australia because we like to be a proper family unit," she told Closer magazine.

"I will take the kids to see him in Sydney because it's important for us to all be together."