The former member of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' claims her career was damaged by her 'very public' separation from the 'Two and a Half Men' alum.
- Dec 18, 2020
AceShowbiz - Actress-turned-reality star Denise Richards blames her "very public" divorce from Charlie Sheen for derailing her career.
The exes were married from 2002 to 2006, during which they welcomed daughters Sam and Lola, now 16 and 15, but their split was a nasty affair, with Denise obtaining a restraining order against Charlie amid allegations of death threats.
The pair has since made amends, but for a long time, Denise had trouble accepting the negative impact the divorce drama had on her profession.
She said, "I obviously went through a very public divorce. It was hard for me to comprehend that my public divorce affected my work. I didn't understand it at the time because I thought, 'How come? That's my private life. It shouldn't affect my work.' But it did."
Denise shot to stardom after roles in movies such as "Starship Troopers", "Wild Things", and as Bond girl Christmas Jones in the "World Is Not Enough", but she struggled to adjust to life in the limelight.
She told People, "It's not something you can really prepare someone for."
"When I would do interviews, I was very private, which I'm sure people now would find hard to believe because I've done reality shows and I'm on Instagram and stuff."
"When I started out, they wanted to imagine the actor in that role. And we would do our best to keep it and keep our private life private. It was a hard thing to navigate and I've made a lot of mistakes."
However, Denise, who is also mum to adopted daughter Eloise, nine, is grateful to have a direct link to fans via social media, because it's allowed her to set the record straight on false tabloid reports.
"It's hard being misunderstood and having stuff that is not true out there," explained the actress, whose marriage to Aaron Phypers was recently rocked by rumours of a same sex tryst with fellow "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Brandi Glanville, who claimed the ladies hooked up during a night out in Santa Barbara, California in April, 2019.
"My older daughters, they're teenagers now and I can't keep stuff away from them at all. They will hear everything. I miss the time when I was able to shelter them from the negative publicity around our family, quite frankly."
Denise has continued to deny the lesbian love claims, and exited the "Real Housewives" franchise in September (20) after two seasons on the show.
