For love or money. Denise Richards opened up about turning to reality TV amid her costly divorce from ex-husband Charlie Sheen and her mounting debts.
“Back during the show I did at E! [Denise Richards: It’s Complicated], I had to do that. I had too many legal bills with my ex-husband,” the reality star, 48, admitted during the Wednesday, August 7, episode of the “Daddy Issues” podcast with Dean McDermott, Adam Hunter and Nicky Paris. “He said he wanted to bleed me dry, and he did. Those legal fees add up quite fast.”
Richards explained how her relationship with Sheen, 53, further impacted her career choices. “It was difficult for me to get a job back then because I was perceived as doing something very [negative] with Charlie, so that was very hard — when you’re misunderstood and you want to keep your personal life private and when it’s out there,” she said.
The actress starred in two seasons of the E! reality show, which ran from 2008 to 2009 and documented her life as a famous mom navigating work and parenthood post-divorce.
Richards wed Sheen in June 2002. She filed for divorce in March 2005, and they finalized the proceedings in November 2006. The exes share daughters Sam, 15, and Lola, 14.
The Wild Things star, who married Aaron Phypers in September 2018, joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in season 9. She lamented her divorce’s effect on her children during an April episode. “It’s surreal when you start to see your kids become adults. It makes me cry,” she said at the time. “I just feel like I f–ked up a lot with their dad. I don’t want them to look back at their childhood and remember [arguments].”
She added: “My girls have been through a lot. How I chose to relate to the dysfunction that was going on with their father was to hide it from the kids. I don’t know if I did a disservice or not. … It just made me realize how fast it goes. Life is so short and their childhood is so short.”
