Denise Richards reveals her ‘public divorce’ from Charlie Sheen ‘affected my work’

Denise Richards is getting candid about her infamous split from ex Charlie Sheen.

The 49-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum opened up about the painful period of her life in an interview with People on Thursday.

‘That was a hard thing for me to go through and deal with,’ said the one-time Bond girl. 

‘I obviously went through a very public divorce,’ explained the Wild Things star.

‘It was hard for me to comprehend that my public divorce affected my work. I didn’t understand it at that time because I thought, “How come? That’s my private life. It shouldn’t affect my work.” But it did.’

The star couple get engaged in 2001 and tied the knot the following year.

However in 2005, while Richards was pregnant with their second daughter, the breakout star of Starship Troopers filed for divorce from Sheen, and also sought a restraining order against him for alleged death threats.

Their divorce was finalized on November 30, 2006.

But even though the Richards remembers that time ‘as one of the hardest of my life,’ the pair eventually became friendly again, even appearing in each other’s film and TV projects in subsequent years. 

The mother-of-three married Aaron Phypers in 2018, with the ‘frequency therapist’ going on to apply to legally adopt Denise’s youngest daughter Eloise. 

The couple have even been working together on the set of Richards’ show The Bold and the Beautiful, with Phypers standing in during ‘love scenes’ in order to meet on-set COVID safety standards. 

‘It’s been fun,’ Denise told Kelly Clarkson back in August.

Apart from Eloise, 9, Richards shares daughters Sam, 16, and Lola, 15, with her ex Sheen.