"I became a shell of myself" - Denise Richards recounts her divorce with Charlie Sheen as 'hitting rock bottom'

Denise Richards recently opened up about raising her children with her former husband, Charlie Sheen, and talked about their highly publicized and controversial divorce. The two tied the knot in 2002 and parted ways in 2006. In the first episode of her new reality TV show, Denise Richards & Her Wild Things, which premiered March 4, 2025, Richards reconnected with Sheen and went to lunch with one of their daughters, Lola, who is 19.

Denise shares two daughters with Sheen: Lola and Sami, who is 21. The Wild Things star adopted her daughter, Eloise, in 2011, when she was just a baby, after her divorce from Sheen. Eloise Richards is now 13.

On the Whine Down with Jana Kramer podcast, Richard discussed the difficulties of raising children with Sheen. She claimed what they were doing could not be considered co-parenting, as she parented her way, so did Sheen. However, she mentioned that there is no discord between the two, but she wished they could be proper friends and claimed that it is currently not the case.

Now, returning to their family lunch on the recently released reality show, Richards confessed that it wasn't easy to get where they're now. The 54-year-old actress said:

"Charlie and I were married for four-and-a-half years before I filed. He had been sober for about four years and very committed to his sobriety, and I never thought someone that committed could fall off and fall back into that because I, at the time, hadn't really been around it."

The Starship Troopers actress recalled the day she packed all her things and left the house due to a huge fight she had had with Sheen the previous evening. She went to the Beverly Hills Hotel, and from there, she went to file for divorce. Not to mention, Richards also remembered the time when Sheen said horrible and repulsive things about her. Later, Denise admitted that she never said anything ill to him as he used to spiral.

It was Richards who took temporary custody of Sheen's twin boys, whom he shares with actress Brooke Mueller (Charlie's third ex-wife), in 2013. The couple at the time was under substance abuse and couldn't take care of the boys.

Denise cleared it out by saying:

"I didn’t publicly say I did. I was in the tabloids all the time, and it got to a point where I had to literally put myself, basically, in a bubble. I told my publicist, ‘Don't send me any article.’ Because it was getting to me. I was getting to the place of being rock bottom. I became a shell of myself."

Richards eventually stated that if anything mattered to her the most, it would be her children and their welfare, and that's all she cared about.