Nineteen years ago, when Denise Richards filed for divorce from Charlie Sheen, her affidavit read like a portrait of survival: addiction spirals, abusive words, nightly volatility, a young mother pregnant with her second child, desperately trying to hold her family together. The court papers were less about privacy, more about preserving safety.
Fast‑forward to September 2025, and Richards showed up at the Los Angeles premiere of aka Charlie Sheen, the Netflix documentary that unflinchingly revisits Sheen’s fall from grace and his attempts at reinvention. On that red carpet, walking beside her former husband, she seemed calm.
It was not the Denise of affidavits, but someone who has carried that pain, spoken it, and now, chooses her posture differently.
What She’s Saying Now
In the new docuseries aka Charlie Sheen, Denise opens up in ways many knew existed, but few had heard so plainly. She tearfully revisited the marriage’s highs and lows: the pressure of fame, the breaking point. She said of their life together, “I think that if I wasn’t a strong person, I would have gone down a very dark road just to deal with all of this s—.”
She also admits something surprising, even vulnerable: she still loves him. Not necessarily the married sense, but in whatever complicated, layered way love persists after divorce and after deep hurt.
It’s not a bow‑tie closure—nothing neat. It’s more like an acknowledgement that some parts of her life with Charlie always matter. (This echoes a moment in the doc when she says she always had his back during the mess of their split.)
Also in the documentary: Denise traces some of the change in Charlie’s behaviour back to Two and a Half Men, his massive success, and the “pressure” that came with it. She places some blame on the machine of his fame: the expectations, the visibility, the stress. She’s clear-eyed about what shifted.
The Divorce And Reality TV
While Denise has been publicly reflecting on her past with Charlie, there’s also current turmoil in her life. Her marriage to Aaron Phypers ended, with Phypers filing for divorce in July 2025, citing irreconcilable differences.
Her reality series Denise Richards & Her Wild Things premiered in early 2025, following Richards, her three daughters (Sami, Lola, and Eloise), her then‑husband Phypers, and occasional interactions with Charlie Sheen. But the show will not return for a second season.
Bravo says it was always meant to be a limited run; others suggest the timing of its cancellation, just days after her messy divorce filing (which has included claims of abuse, neglect and squalor) has raised eyebrows.
Finances have been difficult for her. In 2021, a court order terminated his child support payments to her for their two daughters. That decision may have influenced her financial and professional choices including her reality show, brand deals, and her presence on OnlyFans.
When she joined OnlyFans in 2022 (just weeks after her daughter Sami signed on) it was dismissed by some as a cash grab, a career pivot from a woman past her prime. But like most things with Denise, the reality was more layered.
She described her account as an “empowering” space where she could control her image—and her revenue. She posed in lingerie, bikinis, body chains. But this time around there were no managers. No agents. No men holding the camera.
For someone like Denise, who’s been sexualized by the media since she played a femme fatale in Wild Things, it’s a strange kind of full-circle moment.
Why This Moment Matters
The premiere of aka Charlie Sheen is more than just revival TV or celebrity spectacle. It’s a reckoning. Of sorts. Maybe coexistence is a better word. Not reconciliation. Not redemption. Just the ability to be in the same room without bitterness taking centre stage.
“She’s always had my back,” Charlie says in the documentary. And she has. Even at her own expense. Theirs isn’t a happy ending (it’s not even an ending). But what it is, perhaps, is a portrait of two people who know that pain doesn’t disappear. But people, sometimes, can grow around it.
