"I said to myself: 'Would I want my daughters to be married to this man?'"
Denise Richards took a moment to reflect on her divorce from her ex-husband, Charlie Sheen, on Dear Media's Divorced Not Dead podcast this week.
Richards separated from Sheen in 2006, when she was six months pregnant with their second daughter. "I said to myself: 'Would I want my daughters to be married to this man?'" she told host Caroline Stanbury. Sheen has long struggled with substance abuse and is the subject of several sexual abuse and assault allegations.
"No offense to him," Richards said, "but it’s true."
Richards continued, "It was not a good situation." Shortly after the couple divorced, Richards sought a restraining order from Sheen as well as full custody of their two daughters. Though she has maintained her legal custody ever since, she's always made an effort to allow the girls to see their father. Their oldest daughter, Sami, turned 18 in March. Their younger child, Lola, is now 17.
"There is a lot that the public doesn't know, and you never know what goes on behind closed doors," Richards said.
"The times where he was in a good space and able to, I wanted the girls to get to know their dad for him and not what he struggles with," she said. “I wanted them to know their dad for them and not what they may or may not read about him."
Nevertheless, Richards also said this week she wonders if she did her daughters a disservice by allowing them to her and her ex as a united front when they were together.
"I never wanted them to sense any discord between us because I didn’t want them to feel (unsettled), you know what I mean?" she said. "There’s really no handbook for this, especially when you’re in the public."
Despite the animosity and struggles, Richards remains steadfast: "I don’t regret my marriage to Charlie," she said. "Because I really do believe that he and I were brought together to have our daughters."
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