Denise Richards' daughters Sam, 6, and Lola, 5, "are still very much in the dark" about how their father Charlie Sheen, nude and intoxicated, trashed his Plaza Hotel suite Oct. 26 with porn star Capri Anderson, an insider tells the new Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
They also don't know about his Christmas Day blow-out with ex Brooke Mueller, during which Sheen, 45, threatened her with a knife: "If you tell anybody, I'll kill you."
Or any of his domestic disturbances or stints in the slammer.
"Denise knows the girls are going to go through hell when they get old enough to understand all the ugliness," the source tells Us Weekly.
Ironically, Richards hadn't planned on Sheen joining her and her daughters for the girls' first trip to NYC last month. At the eleventh hour, Sheen decided to go, and Richards – on better terms with her ex these days – agreed. "Despite everything she'd been through with him, he is their father," says a source.
Though they seemed like a happy bunch as they visited FAO Schwartz, the American Girl store and caught a performance of Broadway's Mary Poppins, tension was evident during an Oct. 24 dinner at Seraphina.
A witness says the girls stuck close to Richards and even went with her to the restroom.
Says the source, "They are a little afraid of him."
For more – including what really happened when Sheen lost it in his Plaza Hotel suite – pick up the new Us Weekly today!