Nick Lachey will have to attend anger management classes and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings due to an altercation with a paparazzo, which took place in March 2022. According to Page Six, police records show that the 98 Degrees member was charged with assault and battery against photographer Jody Santos last year but did not receive formal punishment until she pushed the Beverly Hills Police Department to take action.

“He has to complete [anger management and AA] within a reasonable time, which is like a year or so,” Santos told the Daily Mail this week. “If he fails to do so, they will move forward to prosecute him with noncompliance and he will get arrested.”

On March 27th, 2022, Santos, a paparazzo, was sitting in her car taking photos of Lachey and his wife, Vanessa Lachey, as they left a restaurant across the street in Beverly Hills. When the singer spotted her, he ran over to her car and tried to grab her camera and phone by reaching through her passenger window.

“In all my years of photographing celebrities, no one has ever tried to hit me,” Santos told the newspaper. After rolling up the window “as fast” as she “could," she said Lachey "started punching the window. I thought he was going to break his hand; that’s how hard he was hitting the glass." Santos added, "I am surprised he didn’t shatter the window" and has "no doubt" Lachey would have "knocked" her out if she hadn't raised her window in time.

According to Page Six, Lachey addressed the incident the day after it happened. “Last night, after enjoying a great dinner with my wife and our dear friend, the paparazzi harassed us as we walked back to our hotel,” he tweeted. “I clearly overreacted. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that their antics are sadly part of the deal. Stupid of me. Done.”

Jeff McCartney