Denise Richards on Fame, Family, and Finding Herself

Hey, besties, Hello Sunshine.

Today on the bright Side, Denise Richards is with us. She's making her return to Bravo in her new docuseries Denise Richards and Her Wild Things, where she's giving you the real deal on her home, happiness and Hollywood in the nineties.

It's Tuesday, February twenty fifth. I'm Siman Boyce.

I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine. Denise Richards has been a familiar face in Hollywood since she first burst onto the scene in the nineties. She starred in films like Starship Troopers and The World Is Not Enough as a bond girl, and then of course in Wild Things and we Can't Forget That Unforgettable Love actually cameo. You know her as an actress, a model, and a mom, and now she's coming back to TV with a brand new look at her life, her whole life.

Listen.

She would be the first to admit that she has been through a lot, and she's done it all in the public eye. So today we're getting the full story from Denise Richards herself.

Absolutely, let's bring it in. Denise, Welcome to the bright Side.

Thank you for having me and we're so happy to have you.

Okay, So your brand new reality show debuts tomorrow, and it has been sixteen years since we followed your life in Denise Richards. It's complicated.

Has it been that long? Does it feel like it's been allow?

It doesn't because and it's so funny because my older girls they were turning three and four when we started. It's complicated and now and then I Alois wasn't even boring yet, so to now see us, the older girls are nineteen twenty and Alois is thirteen. But then also I did Housewives in between, yes, which the girls weren't on very much.

But so how are things going to be different this time from when we did the first reality show?

Yeah?

Oh gosh. Well, when the girls were so young, it was they, you know, had to do what I told them to do.

Still need to do what you tell them to do. Well, you'd be surprised.

It's very different because it's the dynamic of with two teenagers and Sammy who's now twenty. It is a very different dynamic.

And now I'm married. I wasn't married when we.

Did the first reality show, So it's blending the family and seeing a lot of familiar faces on there. It's a lot of fun. My girls have no filter. There are times where I'm almost like, oh, I wish you wouldn't say that, or maybe don't, but they are themselves.

What do you hope to convey this time?

Is there something that you want to get across to the audience that maybe challenges the perceptions that have been out there about you, either in the tabloids or in the media, anything like that.

No, I've had so much stuff said over the years about our family, about myself. This was an opportunity for us to do a show as a family together, and it was a big decision and we all talked about it and just we are who we are. Not everyone's going to love watching us. Some people will love watching us hopefully, and we're just on this journey of raising kids in Hollywood and them adapting to that too as adults, and them sharing their experience and it's just, you know,

Do you feel desensitized to it?

Almost at this point that I feel desensitized.

It's more about I used to be such a people pleaser, and then when I went through my divorce with Charlie, it really it was really difficult for me, and I had to just kind of put myself on a bubble from listening to stuff, and it really I was always like cautious what I say in interviews and before my divorce, and so after I thought, you know, I'm just going to be my true, authentic self because I want to

It is what it is.

I can imagine that that time, like the bad press, must have been so shocking, because when I was thinking about your career last night, I was like, Okay, she moved from Illinois. You were kind of naive, like you had no I listened to your interview with Bethany Frankel, like you said, you basically had no understanding of Hollywood and the industry and it is a business, right and you get here and you're very pretty, you know, and

I've been wanting to shield them since social media started and trying to, you know, not have them on there at all, and they would sneak and get on anyway, and they figured out how to get their phone where the parental control was often stuff. They're much smarter than you think kids, but I wish actually my older daughters, they are so much more confident, more savvy than I was at their age, and I wish I had that when I was their age.

Do you have any PTSD from those early years of Hollywood.

I wouldn't say PTSD. I think it's even through not just the younger years.

Later too.

I've had stuff happen and go on, and I think it's more about I can compartmentalize things and move on and move forward.

It doesn't define who I am.

It's just obviously there's such situations that I'm of course very cautious or so I am overprotective of my daughters and they even talk about it on the show. They say it, but I it's because I know more than they know, and I've experienced more than they have. And so as any mom or dad with boys and girls coming of age, it's really hard.

What would you say is the biggest thing that you want them to take away from your experiences?

Well, just to always follow their gut.

And this is something my mom always told me, and to listen to that guardian angel in that voice that's telling you if something doesn't feel right to it. But it is also such a different time than when I grew up in the business.

I didn't there wasn't social media.

I feel that now there's just such you're so vulnerable even if you're not in the public and you're on social media and you're out there. But obviously having parents that are in the public eye and doing a show like this, they're going to be more out there. But just I don't think I'll ever stop worrying as their parents.

Comes with the territory.

In one of the episodes of your reality show, it's actually the first episode, you say that your kids have a lot of explaining to do about their parents.

Tell me what you meant by that.

Well, all I need to say, I think is their parents are Denise Richards and Charlie.

She Okay, that's your kids.

You can't clump Denise Richards and with Charlie.

She I agree with you.

Thank you for saying that I did cover up a lot of stuff for them, protecting them, And they now are sometimes get angry at me that I why didn't I share this?

Why didn't I say anything? Because they find out about it on their area.

Yeah, and but I've told them as they've gotten older, if you ever have any questions or just come to me. But when they do discover things and they're like, why wouldn't you say anything? Why didn't you tell us that? What am I going to say at your age? Like certain things?

You know?

So I said, there's no handbook for this, like I did the best I could going through it.

You were doing your best, And I mean you brought up your ex husband, Charlie Sheen, and I remember watching his very public downfall, and I remember feeling so much empathy for you as a wife and a mother going through that.

How is he doing now? He's doing good? Yeah, yeah, no, he's doing good. He's Uh.

That was the journey he had to take to go through everything he did, and obviously it was so public and it was very humiliating and embarrassing later now for him and also for his kids. You don't sometimes I think the kids were so young. But still I don't think he was in the headspace of what were my kids think?

But that's what addiction does to you, ack right.

Yeah, I mean he's definitely in a much better place now than he was back then, and it was difficult on all the kids.

Well, we can't talk about family without talking about your current husband, Aaron. You've been married since twenty eighteen. How has this marriage healed you?

Well? I think I was keelled before I got married.

Otherwise I wouldn't have been in the place to get married, and I didn't. I was never the type that had to have a boyfriend, even when I was younger, in my twenties and when I started dating, I was never

He was different when we got married, but.

He's been such a wonderful, you know, person and human and husband, and he's a great step dad and a great dad to Eloise.

Does Charlie give you credit for all that?

Like hearing you just say you took care of his kids at some point like that's you have to have a lot of space in your heart for that.

I think there have been a couple thank yous over the years, but not in death, not enough. It sounds like we didn't have that sit down conversation like Hay, but that's not Charlie.

I think it's actually probably hard for him too.

He's not the warm and fuzzy I was always the warm and fuzzy person.

And I'll joke around with him more.

He jokes around too, but it takes a little bit for us to get on the loosen ofp of it. He and I do, though, have a sense of humor about yeah, because it's so bad that we have to.

That's huge, having a sense of humor and marriages everything.

We laugh at it.

So but where did that come from for you? Like, if you're not doing it for thanks, which it's clear you're not.

I think it came from my mom.

My mom was such a great woman that she was always so fair about everything, and a lot of my ex boyfriends before she passed, they would still call her for advice and she just was that woman. And so I've learned a lot from her and from my dad. And my mom was always a big advocate of doing

You know, do you ever have a longing for that, like to give your kids the upbringing that you had, which was this very like quintessential simple Midwest upbringing and like you guys have had a whole different life.

When my kids were really little, right after Lola was born, my mom, I'll never forget her saying this, she said to me, you need to let.

Go of the white pick of unds.

She said that, she said that, and I was like, Okay, she goes, it's never going to be that. It's don't try to have it's not. You know, your kids are growing up very differently, and it's okay. But I will say pre pandemic. A couple years prior to that, I did want to move out of California. But it's hard with our job to move out of state. And in hindsight, I really wish I did. I wish I raised my kids somewhere else. You grew up in Illinois. Grew up in Illinois, I.

Was born here. I moved around all all over the place, Denise, But okay, don't count I'm joking. Yeah, a Miami.

Miami is like where I spent my childhood. It was actually a great place to grow up.

But it's it's different here, and I always would try to defend, Oh no, it's you know, the family you make while you're here. But if they were younger, I would have moved them out. But they're doing good. They actually have a huge They have a good head on their shoulders, much more than I did when I moved here.

That's awesome.

I was so naive.

I was too, I guess I think that's why I asked you that question.

Moved here. I was twenty two, okay.

And I think I asked you that question about like, do you have PTSD from moving here?

Because I have a little bit of it.

I think you do.

Yeah, I mean not in the like diagnostic sense, but just it's different. It's so different, and I I didn't understand people's intentions, and I like, I remember the guy that was cutting my hair tried to sleep with me and I called my mom crying, and I was like even the hairdressers like has weird morals.

It was just like so disorienting.

It is different.

And for me what I remember because we moved here when I was fifteen, my dad got a job trends or he used to work for Illinois Bell, which was a long time ago, and the girls were just so mean. I'm sure and they are. And when we say we're going to meet someone for dinner or lunch, we're there five minutes early, or we don't just not show up at all, and like, oh, I didn't know we were still going. Well, we said we were going, Why do we need to also confirm like five minutes before.

Totally.

That was the thing that was hard for me to get used to moving to California.

People I'm sure would like cancel your meetings the day out, and.

You didn't know sometimes because it wasn't re re reconfirmed. So now I know we have to re reconfirm everything.

We've got to take a quick break, but don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with Denise Richards. And we're back with Denise Richards. Well, you also started working in Hollywood in a very different time. I mean this was pre me too. This was free fall of Harvey Weinstea and all that stuff. Did you ever experience that dark side of Hollywood? The stuff that came to light? I didn't me too. Movement in what content you I've never.

Really talked about it publicly because I made the decision to not, especially when all that stuff came out with me too, to not. I didn't want to mention names because they have families and stuff, and I just didn't want to do that to their families, which is and some people will be angry at me for not, but I made the choice even though I felt vulnerable and it was a different time. But I made the choice now being more of an adult, to not only because of there are situations.

Well, it's also it's your story and you get to decide if and when you're ready to share it. And that's a very you know, I don't know the details. I've experienced some sexual assault and sexual harassment myself, and so I have the utmost respect for anybody who has experienced that and you don't have to share it.

I think you would be hard to find a woman in this industry who didn't experience anything at all. Correct, you know, it's uh, I don't know. Especially when I started out, it was just a different time, Yeah, very different.

I have this written on my whiteboard at my house and it says the universe keeps the score and so so true. Sometimes you don't always have to be the one right if it doesn't feel like you need to ring the best.

I think the truth comes out eventually, yes, But for me, I will eventually talk about the actual experience, but won't say names. I think eventually I will my daughters know. Wow, you know I've talked to them about it.

Why was it important to share it with them?

Because they're at that age of getting into the industry and I want them to know that because they see me as strong, because I can be a hard ass now, but they don't know what I was like back then.

But also during the year certain things and.

Even though you're older and more wise, you still can find yourself in different situations. But just to make them aware, like this did happen to me. And this is why I'm also overprotective, because sometimes they would get angry at me, like Mom, I'm like, no, I want you to know because these things did happen to me, and if it could happen to me, it could happen to you. And I just want you to be more aware and have a voice and stand up for yourself.

That's really I think admirable that you said something to them.

I feel like I had to. They're women, and they're young, they're beautiful, and they're so vulnerable.

Do you feel like you're able to be open about some of the experiences that you had with other actors who came up alongside you during that time. Do you feel any sense of sisterhood with some of the actresses that you were in the same circles with.

Yes, that's good. Yeah, definitely. I think there's so much power in that too.

There was something about the nineties. When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was real bad.

There was some bad things, but when it was good it was good too. Yeah.

Well, that's actually cool to think about because you really were in You were in it in the.

Heyday of Valleyway.

Yeah.

My kids are so jealous. They're like, wish I had the nineties and it's so funny.

Totally.

I think we always have nostalgia for a simpler time or what we think was a simpler time.

And the movies were so fun and different, so good.

Yes, I have so much nineties nostalgia for the soundtracks, all of it. Yeah, so good, characters, everything.

Have you had this like sort of guiding philosophy as you've been navigating everything like Hollywood, reality, TV, public scrutiny, parenthood. Do you have a guiding philosophy through it all?

Just following what I want to do?

And also when I did start out acting, you were either you either did movies or you did TV. When you did a talk show or an interview, you were there was a mystery because you needed people to see you as that character. And I love, actually, though that it's all that we are more connected with fans and be able to have that interaction because that's why we all have a job, and it's nice to have that.

Speaking of entertainment, Denise, you did a reality show called Special Forces on.

Fox Entertainment at its finest.

I love that show so much.

Same I don't know why I did it, So why did you do it? Okay, I don't know. They asked me for a while and I finally decided to do it to take myself out of my comfort zone, and I figured this would be something I will never ever have another opportunity to do this. And I did briefly touch on what you were talking about, Yeah, sexual assault

Why how so, like, what what are the moments that kind of stick out in your mind?

The first moment when we got pushed off a boat and have to swim, and we didn't have our phones and we were swimming in the Irish Sea, so I wasn't able to google, like, we didn't know we're being pushed off. Oh my god, So we were. I was in the front of the boat, so it was so noisy, you couldn't hear. They would pick us up, like walk us to the back, but you can't hear because our heads are down where.

I haven't seen the show. By the way, I don't watch it. You haven't watched it back.

It's traumatizing for you or what?

Well? Both? First number one, I don't like to watch myself, and it's hard to watch yourself. It's hard for me to even listen to myself.

And I hated that we had no glam selfishly, we really truly did not get to have any.

On Special Forces and you have an epic LAMB team. I know that is an iconic glayard. And I couldn't even bring mascara. They would have taken it from me. So I was like, I'm not why would I want to watch myself? And also what I shared too, I was like, I didn't want to watch that back. But

Is there?

Which is probably good thing that I didn't know what's you can't see anything? And yeah, I was kind of nervous. What's down there? Yeah, and I'm afraid of heights. So but I'm proud of myself that I did jump off the bridge because I am terrified of heights.

So I can't believe I did that.

Sounds like an exercise and trust in a lot of ways or stupidity.

Have your girls watched it?

They can't watch it, they won't watch it. They did not want me to do the show. I actually gotten an argument with.

Them, really, yes, because they were scared for your safety. Yeah.

I would be for my mom too.

I know, I get it.

It's time for another short break, but stay with us. We'll be right back with Denise Richards. And we're back with Denise Richards.

I need to go back to an earlier part of the interview, okay, because I love the nineties so much, and that's.

All you've been thinking about. So I talk about Special Forces.

You're like, no, But your iconic film Wild Things came out in nineteen ninety eight.

What I'm glad you know the year. I don't even know what was it like to be Denise Richards in nineteen ninety eight. That's so funny. Okay.

So Starship Troopers came out and four months later it was Wild Things, so two completely different movies. It was very surreal walking into a grocery store and seeing myself on the cover of a magazine or you know, I did a lot of covers and a lot of sexy stuff and labeled a sex symbol, and here I am and jeans and a T shirt and like people could only see me on my real life. It's surreal, and it's you know, I always say it's people say sometimes

Don't come from a Hollywood family.

I came from my mom who was a stay at home mom and my dad who worked at a phone company, and all of a sudden, their daughter is they have neighbors asking and things like that. So that was a big adjustment I think for my family.

How do you reflect on the sex symbol label now? Now? I'm like, well, shit, I wish I embraced it more now that I'm older. That's all how gom I was kind of shy. I was, really, yes, I was.

I was much more shy and awkward and uncomfortable when people would say stuff, even on a red carpet. I would get embarrassed when people would take photos.

I just was.

It's funny because I was more comfortable playing a part than presenting an award at an awards showing myself. I'd be so nervous and I would just have to tell myself, okay, just pretend like it's a role and you're walking out there, because it's so daunting and nerve wracking. But it's a it's just a different thing and different feeling of all of a sudden people seeing you in a way.

So right now, people if they're interesting, and it's particularly famous people, they just dm somebody to go out on a date. But in nineteen ninety eight, you blow up, You're on the cover of magazines. What is your life like in terms of dating? Is everyone asking you out? Is no one asking you out because they're intimidated our agents setting you up?

Usually they will ask their publicist to ask the other publicist if someone's interested.

That's how it usually was.

Is it still like that?

Well, I'm married. I've been with my husband for god over eight years.

So yeah.

Prior to that, I don't know, because I wasn't interested in dating. No, it was like the Raya or whatever. I think that's ry or whatever. I don't even say it right, I don't even know the name of the fricking sit.

Is that still popular? Yeah?

I think it's on the decline, but it is still popular. What's the new ones?

You know?

Are you thinking? Am? Okay? So not that you're on it? If you will, I am? I out? Okay? Which ones are you on?

I'm on? Well?

What's the what's the best one?

There's Bumble, there's Hinge, there's Rayah. It's not an app girl, I like an in person.

So how do you meet people?

I don't So do you not meet anyone on the the apps?

Yeah?

They're usually just pen pals, and I'm not a great texter, so it ends up.

Physicing texture even in the friend zone.

That's actually really cute. It's true. So is it because you don't want to go out with them? Or oh this is good. This is a great question.

Today because value, I mean, you can cut whatever you want to cut. You have control over this interview. I bet a lot of you all would love to know this because it's a big thing with dating.

No, it's a big thing. Okay, So I will tell you when I go other places. When I'm in New York, I get asked out a lot. In LA No one really asked me out. And I don't know if it's the energy I'm putting out or I think the culture of conversation here is like nobody really chats.

New York is so different.

It's really different. I like a more like I think aggressive guy.

I mean to me, you seem like New York vibe.

I am wearing a leather coat today and it might be yeah, K look extra New York today.

Yes, your hair pulled back, very sleek.

But you don't really you tried kind of living in New York for a little bit and you were like, I don't know if this is for me.

Well, by day I really love New York.

And by day three I got into a fight with a FedEx guy over two dollars, and I thought I did too.

Much therapy and have lived in LA too long.

I was so calm to have yelled at a fed Ex man over two bucks.

I gotta get back.

Well, people are a little bit more straightforward there. Yeah, but being from Chicago. The weather in New York is a little tough too in the winter.

I would your girls ever move or they're LA for.

They would move, I don't know if they would move to New York. We have talked about Tennessee. I think that they possibly would go to Nashville, but I don't know if they would. I don't think they'd moved to Chicago because it's just so damn cold. Yeah, you know, as much as I love it there.

Do your girls keep you in the loop about their love life? Oh? Yes, okay, so you guys have that open, real, very open. Okay, thank you my advice? Yes, my husband gave some advice.

I won't say which daughter because I don't want her to get mad, gave some advice the other night, and it was good. They are very open, much more open with me than I was more open with my mom as I got older, but not at their age. I was much more private because I'd be really a good girl, so I couldn't tell my mom certain things. But we definitely have that communication, which is great. You're trying to get off the subject of her dating.

No, I.

Won't put you on the spot.

Okay, Well, Denise, you want to play a little game with you in honor of Wild Things, your new show, We're going to play around of wild or mild.

So this is basically true or false.

We're going to give you some rumors that we've heard about you to see.

You about me.

Okay, this interview took a turn to see if it's mild, if it's false, and excuse. If it's true, it's mild, and if it's false, it's wild.

Okay, Okay.

Wild or Mild Denise has three town homes, one house, four dogs, three daughters, and one husband to manage.

Mild mild Okay.

Wild or Mild Denise is known to crash a Hollywood party uninvited.

Wild Denise had to replace her breast implants after jumping off a bridge.

Mild Okay, I need more details.

I'm so sorry.

First of all, painful.

They're getting replaced to I haven't had the downtime to do it, so it's coming up when I'm down with thought my press. But yes, when I jumped off the bridge, the harness, the pressure because it wasn't like a bungee, it was like a rope that kind of stopped you in It ruptured every thing on me was painful.

At that point, I've been thinking about getting one, but I have been don't get them, don't get them.

I've been reading terrible. If I could do it all over again, don't get them. Nope, just be a flat jested battie. Yeah, okay.

My oldest daughter got them, and I try to talk her out of it, okay, and she many reasons. It's, first of all, the saint just my second set coming in.

Yeah, you have to replace them every ten years, right.

When things go sideways, you replace some. But they do say ten years. But and when you're I got them at nineteen. When you're nineteen, you don't think you're like, oh, ten years is so far away, But the older you get, ten years isn't so far away. Yeah, But it's just a constant thing. And plus they're not the healthiest. Yeah, but my oldest daughter, she's I think she's wishing she kind of didn't soothe.

She wishes she listened to me. But you don't get them, don't get them. Okay, all right, Denise.

You know what they're coming out with so much technology where you could hold off.

Yeah, I'm gonna wait until yeah they perfect that fat injection process.

Wait, okay, all right, what's the other wild mild? Okay, okay, we have a couple more. Okay, Wilder Mild. See Denise likes the game now, Okay, Wilder Mild. Denise is a pasta pro and about to release her first cookbook, wild I wish it was true.

I'm trying to be a pasta pro, and I know I am so far from having my own cookbook and be like what not to do in the kitchen?

Okay, the last Wilder Mild Denise will forever be an unfiltered queen.

Oh Mild, perfect way to.

End, Denise, Thank you so much.

We can't wait to see all of your new adventures unfold. And thank you for joining us on the bright side.

Thank you so much for having me the girls are so fun.

You're fun too.

You're fun too. Thanks for rolling with our crazy games. I love it.

Denise Richards is an actor and reality star. Her new docuseries, Denise Richards and Her Wild Things, premieres on Bravo on Marsh.

That's it for today's show.

Tomorrow, It's well this Wednesday, we're talking all about the surprising superpowers of the mommy brain with clinical psychologist and author doctor Nicole Pensac. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh, and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at Danielle Robe.

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See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.