Denise Richards Returns to “RHOBH”: She and Erika Jayne Open Up About Being In Abusive Relationships

NEED TO KNOW

• Denise Richards made an appearance on the Feb. 19 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

• Over dinner with Sutton Stracke and Erika Jayne, Denise discussed her ongoing divorce from ex Aaron Phypers, as well as her recent cosmetic procedures.  Phypers previously denied Denise’s allegations of physical abuse as “completely false and deeply hurtful”

• Erika also revealed her own experience in an abusive relationship with an unidentified person for the first time

Denise Richards made an emotional Real Housewives of Beverly Hills return.

The star, 55, appeared on the Thursday, Feb. 19, episode of the Bravo reality show — six years after she left the cast full-time — to catch up with Sutton Stracke and Erika Jayne, both 54. Over dinner, Denise discussed with the women her recent cosmetic procedures, as well her ongoing divorce from ex Aaron Phypers.

As she sat down at the table, Denise said she’s “still numb and healing” after losing “200 lbs.” and getting “a facelift six weeks ago.”

Erika asked Denise if the doctors cut her “ears off and reset them” during the facelift.

“I asked them, I said, ‘Do you take the ears off and put them on a table?'” Denise responded. “He said, ‘No, they cut everything else around it.’ And I had my boobs done three weeks prior. I’m very happy, but I’m still so numb.”

Denise Richards in November

Rich Polk/Bravo/Getty

Erika then turned the conversation more serious, bringing up photos of Denise’s black eye that were included in her July request for a temporary restraining order against Aaron, 53. (Denise was granted a five-year restraining order against Aaron in November; Aaron has previously denied Denise’s allegations of physical abuse as “completely false and deeply hurtful” to PEOPLE.)

“I wanted to talk to you about the black eye I saw,” Erika said. “I’m going to say this, ‘That can’t be a onetime thing.'”

To that, Denise said, “No, that’s the truth.”

“It started a while ago,” she said. “It was a slow burn though. My dad asked me, he said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I said, ‘I can’t share this and stay with a person.'”

Denise said that after her first seven-and-half hour surgery, Aaron helped her to the toilet because she “couldn’t even walk by myself.” While sitting on the toilet, she claimed he tried to get her phone and “hit me on the side of my head.” She said her drain also hit the toilet paper holder, and she started “crying.”

“That’s when I really knew there’s no hope at ever salvaging this marriage at all,” she said. “I just wanted to get through my surgeries, and I almost rescheduled my second one, and I said, ‘I cannot go through what I went through.’ Here I am.”

Aaron Phypers and Denise Richards in 2018

Jon Kopaloff/Getty

When asked about what went down between her and Aaron on July 4, which Aaron listed as their date of separation in his divorce filing, Denise said “that weekend was awful. It was f—ing awful.”

Denise claimed she was hit twice post-operation and that is “why I filed a restraining order, and why we’re getting divorced.” The show included that Aaron “maintains his innocence.”

Denise added that she told her ex-husband Charlie Sheen that Aaron “is making him look like a saint.”

“Charlie appreciated it,” she said. “Charlie was the first one to text me, and you [Erika] were the second.”

After apologizing to Denise for what she’s been through, Erika opened up about how she recently found herself in a similar situation with a partner, whose identity remains private.

“When I saw all of this go down, I wanted you to know that I’m thinking of you, and I only want what’s best for you,” she said. “It’s a lonely, isolating feeling. Just so you know, I went through this too — not with any of my husbands, but recently. It’s okay, no one knows. You know now. It’s all water under the bridge, but it’s hard when you’re in it.”

In a confessional, Erika said that she’d “met someone, and it started out fun.”

“There were no expectations of happily ever after or this is my person or any of that bulls—,” she said. “It was several months after I met this person that it turned into chaos.”

The first time the abuse happened, she said she was “incredibly calm.”

“I put on my best hostage negotiator voice and this person was f—ing mad,” she said. “I was afraid, but I was so numb inside that I almost felt nothing.”

Erika Jayne

Theo Wargo/Getty

Back at dinner with the women, Erika said that the abusive relationship with the unidentified person “happened not too long ago” and after her 2020 split from her ex-husband Tom Girardi, 86, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted of four counts of wire fraud.

“It had happened more than once,” she said. “The third time I was like this is not for me. I’m going to say one thing and leave it right here: You have no idea how shameful it is to be the mother of a police officer and have to pick up the phone and call 911 and then call your family member and say, ‘I think you should hear this from me first before you hear it from anyone else.'”

Denise then asked Erika how things have been going with her new boyfriend John McPhee and whether he’s met any of the Housewives, to which she quickly stated, “Absolutely not.” (No allegations of abuse have been made against John.)

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. Episodes will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.

Read the original article on People