Celebrity divorces have a way of capturing the public's attention, just look at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. The latest split making headlines is Denise Richards' divorce from Aaron Phypers, and things are really heating up with the ongoing legal battle. Case in point: she was recently granted a temporary restraining order from Phypers as their lawyers get to work. Let's break it all down.
An insider claimed that Richards and Phypers were constantly fighting, and it looks like those conflicts might have gotten physical. TMZ reported that the RHOBH star was granted a restraining order after accusing her ex of physical and verbal abuse. There are even some photos to accompany these allegations, which show Richards with a black eye. You can see the image below, courtesy of the outlet's Instagram account:
Ouch. Per this report, Richards alleged several incident of domestic violence, with these photo helping to paint a picture of what happened between the former couple behind the scenes. She even claimed that Phypers threatened to kill her, and himself, if she went to the authorities.
This photo, and the documents, paint a very different picture from how the public was introduced to this marriage on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (which is streaming with a Peacock subscription). An excerpt from the documents from Richards claims:
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.
The bruises shown in the above images reportedly came from a confrontation back in 2022, where Aaron Phypers was allegedly paranoid about there being listening devices in potted plants. Richards has made some serious allegations in the paperwork, and I have to assume that this is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the former couple's divorce battle.
Of course, fans will remember that this isn't the first public divorce for the former Bond girl. Richards famously was married to Charlie Sheen, with the former couple having two children together. While that was a split that plenty of people payed attention to that split, which also included allegations of physical abuse and a temporary restraining order. Since Denise an Phypers appeared on TV together, smart money says that this will be another story that the general public keeps up with as the divorce proceedings play out in court.
Professionally, Denise Richards has some exciting projects coming own the line, on the 2025 movie release list and beyond. We'll just have to see how thing shake out with her divorce from Aaron Phypers. An anonymous insider claimed she was preparing for a fight, so we'll have to see how her ex's lawyers respond to these new allegations.
