Why ‘RHOBH’ Alum Denise Richards Feels ‘Misunderstood’

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Denise Richards is looking back at her “public divorce.” She says it’s had an effect on her acting career. As a result, Denise feels “misunderstood” by Hollywood. Thankfully, she has new things in her life to look forward to.

The actress announced her departure from RHOBH after Season 10 ended. Since then, Denise has been keeping herself busy. The Wild Things star admits she’s been busier than ever despite the coronavirus pandemic. While she’s no stranger to tabloid stories, she recalls a time when she experienced a career setback due to her public split from Charlie Sheen.

Denise Richards reflects on the Charlie Sheen divorce

These days, the 49-year-old actress added a lot of credits to her name. She just starred in the family-friendly movie Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate’s Cove, which was released in theaters. Denise Richards finished production on her upcoming medieval drama series Glow & Darkness. Of course, she still appears on CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful, where she plays the vivacious character, Shauna Fulton.

But Denise wasn’t always that busy. She says she’s “grateful” for these new opportunities. The former Bravo star is also happy to be working in a time when most of Hollywood is shut down. In an exclusive interview with People, Denise reflected on her twenties. She said there was “no real handbook” on how to handle her fame.

“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,” Denise explained. “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.”

She admits that she “made a lot of mistakes” and “went through a very public divorce.” The soap star had no idea that it would affect her career. When Denise left Charlie Sheen, she was six months pregnant with her daughter, Lola, now 15. The couple also shares a daughter, Sami, 16.

Their divorce was finalized in 2006. However, the couple still had to work together on Scary Movie 3 and Undercover Brother. Denise claims their split was the “hardest” time in her life. While she wanted to throw herself into her work, she couldn’t.

The RHOBH alum feels “misunderstood”

These days, Denise Richards is happily married to Aaron Phypers, with who she shares daughter Eloise, 9. She adopted Eloise in 2011 and announced in May 2019 that Aaron was in the legal process of “adopting her.” Since being on a reality series, Denise feels that she has to “dispel rumors” about her personal life. This has led her to feel “misunderstood.”

“It’s hard being misunderstood and having stuff that is not true out there,” Denise said. “My older daughters, they’re teenagers now and I can’t keep that 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.”

As RHOBH fans remember, she was part of that infamous Brandi Glanville storyline. But Denise has even more opportunities to look forward to. As per KTLA 5, Denise also has a new beauty line on the way. It makes sense since fans have been wanting her beauty secret after her makeup-free selfie with Jane Seymour.