Denise Richards is making shocking new claims about her estranged husband, Aaron Phypers. The actress asked a court for a temporary restraining order against Aaron on July 16, 2025, claiming he physically abused her throughout their marriage.
Aaron filed for divorce on July 7, 2025, citing “irreconcilable differences,” but Denise’s court documents indicate there’s more to the story.
According to the documents, which were obtained and shared by Us Weekly, Denise told the court: “Throughout our relationship, Aaron would frequently violently choke me, violently squeeze my head with both hands, tightly squeeze my arms, violently slap me in my face and head, aggressively slam my head into the bathroom towel rack, threaten to kill me, hold me down with his knee on my back to the point where I would have to plead with him to get off me so that he would not kill me and hack into my laptop and phone and download all of my text messages.”
Denise went on to claim that Aaron gave her “at least three concussions,” left recording devices in her townhouses and hotel rooms, used degrading profanities, and took private messages from her laptop without her permission.
As to why she’s coming forward now, after Aaron filed for divorce, Denise explained that “Aaron threatened that I would ‘disappear’ if I called the police.”
In the court filing, Denise also claimed that Aaron owns eight unregistered guns, with which he often threatened her. She said, “He has told me multiple times over the course of the last two years that because the guns are unregistered that if he used them, no one would be able to track them.”
In addition to her graphic descriptions of Aaron’s alleged abuse, Denise included two photos of herself with black eyes, allegedly caused by Aaron. According to TMZ, she also included red carpet photos from 2023 that show bruising on her arms — she claims Aaron caused the bruises, which she forgot to cover up.
Denise and Aaron started dating in 2017, and married less than a year later, on September 8, 2018. Their wedding was featured on an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. They were both married before; Denise was married to actor Charlie Sheen from 2001 to 2006 and Aaron was married to actress Nicolette Sheridan from 2015 to 2018.
