'He brought a hooker to Thanksgiving.' Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen's tumultuous marriage.

In 2019, in a segment on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Denise Richards said to her best friend Patrick Muldoon: "My ex-husband’s aged me terribly, I think."

That ex-husband, of course, was Charlie Sheen.

In the segment, Richards recalled an unusual Thanksgiving dinner she shared with Sheen and a sex worker he brought along to the occasion.

"Charlie came over for Thanksgiving for dinner a few years ago, and he had a hooker in the car in the driveway," she said. "He was afraid to tell me. 'Uh, you know, well, she's in the driveway. Is it OK if she's in the driveway?' I said, 'Ugh, I'll set a f**king plate'."

At the time of the admission and its worldwide broadcast, Sheen was reportedly furious Richards brought it up.

The story is ultimately one small example of the tumultuous relationship that Sheen and Richards have shared over the years.

Now, Richards has been called in to feature in the new Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen, dropping on September 10.

The actress is currently going through her own complicated divorce from Aaron Phypers, and is reportedly happy to have Charlie to lean on. The pair have found themselves in a supportive place, attending the Netflix premiere together this week.

Sharing photos on Instagram, Richards wrote: "We both looked at each other on the red carpet and just laughed. Charlie asked, 'Is it 2002?' and I said, 'It sure feels like it.' Who would have thought?"

"What a journey we've had — so many ups and downs. But when life gets tough, deep down we both know we can count on each other. I'm so proud of him, and truly honored he asked me to be part of his story. Congrats, Charles," she continued.

Watch Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards in the trailer for aka Charlie Sheen. Article continues below.

Earlier this year, Richards opened up again about the current state of their relationship. Sheen reunited with Richards and their youngest daughter Lola during Tuesday's episode of Denise Richards & Her Wild Things.

"The girls have been through a lot with their dad," Richards said in a confessional. "It has been up and down."

"I wish Charlie and I would get together more," she noted. "It's important for our daughters to see that we can get along and they need us."

Richards also spoke about the pair's "friendly" but not quite "friendship" relationship on a podcast this week. But we'll get to that shortly.

The parents share a messy history. We've recapped everything you should know about this blended family.

Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen when they were married. Image: Getty.

Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards' tumultuous relationship.

Richards, 54, and Sheen, 59, were married from June 2002 to November 2006. The pair met in 2000 while filming Good Advice, but they didn't begin dating until 2001 after Richards appeared on Spin City.

By their second date, Richards said she knew Sheen was "the one".

"I knew that this is the one, but I wouldn't tell him that. I didn't want to scare him away by saying, 'You're my future husband!' and have him run for the hills," she said.

Sheen proposed on Boxing Day 2001. During their engagement, Sheen had Richards' name tattooed on his wrist and after their wedding on June 15, 2002, Richards decided to get a similar one for him. She's since had it covered.

During their marriage, Richards and Sheen continued to work together when Richards took on a recurring role on Sheen's sitcom Two and a Half Men.

They went on to welcome two daughters Sami, 19, and Lola, 18, before their nasty split and custody battle.

A messy divorce.

In March 2005, while seven months pregnant with their second daughter Lola, Richards filed for divorce. They briefly reconciled after Lola's birth, but a year later in April 2006, she filed again.

Denise and Charlie have had a tumultuous relationship over the years. Image: Getty.

The divorce was... well, it was one of the messiest divorces we can recall.

According to the Daily Beast, in 2006, during an intense custody hearing, Richards obtained a restraining order. She claimed Sheen threatened to murder her and watched "disturbing porn".

"I told the respondent that if the respondent proceeded with his threats to take me to court over the children for overnight visitation, that I would have to tell the truth about what he had done," Richards explained in the filing.

"He told me that 'I will never get to court because I will be f**king dead!' He told me to enjoy my parents 'while they are still around.' I took this to mean that he was not only going to do me harm but also do harm to my parents."

The filing continued: "In December of 2005, the respondent and I took a vacation in Barbados without our children. It was my intention to discuss certain serious matters with the respondent during this trip and to try and understand why the respondent was participating in certain activities, which were repulsive to me, and to convince him to seek help for the sake of our children," she said.

"Prior to our trip, I learned that the respondent was accessing gay pornography sites, which I found even more disturbing because I felt that the boys looked underage," she added.

At the time, Sheen denied the claims that he threatened to kill Richards.

"That's not who I am, I wouldn't do that," he told Mehmet Oz.

Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen in 2005. Image: Getty.

Moving on.

Since the divorce, Richards and Sheen's relationship has regularly gone from toxic to amicable to toxic again.

Sheen went on to marry Brooke Mueller in 2008. They divorced in 2010 following allegations of domestic abuse and in 2012 and 2013, Richards acted as a temporary guardian to Sheen and Mueller's twin sons, Bob and Max, while Mueller went to rehab.

"Brooke knows anytime, and Charlie, that any time they need help with the boys, that I'm there," Richards told Access Hollywood in 2011.

"They're our family and they're Sam and Lola's brothers and I can't imagine growing up without my sister, so anytime she needs help, I'm there for the boys," she said.

"I know it doesn't seem normal, but it is our normal. They're little kids and I love children, and like I said, it's our daughter's brothers, so I can't say no."

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A post shared by Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen)

In 2014, Sheen dated former porn star Brett Rossi and kicked Richards and their children out of the mansion he bought for them in his gated community. He also announced on Twitter he was going to reduce the US$55,000 he paid her in child support.

In 2016, Richards sued Sheen for raiding a $7 million trust that was meant for their daughters and for evicting them from their home.

Soon, love came again for Richards. In 2018, she married her partner Aaron Phypers and they've remained together ever since.

The following year, Richards opened up about that bizarre Thanksgiving dinner, peeling back yet another layer of her complicated relationship with Sheen.

During her appearance on the popular Daddy Issues in 2019, she discussed how she reacted to the stranger joining them for the festivities.

"He (Sheen) told me, 'Hey, I want you to know so-and-so's here. Don't worry she's going to be in the car in the driveway while we eat dinner'," Richards recalled. "I'm like, 'I cannot have her sitting in the driveway'."

Denise with her daughters Lola and Sami. Image: Getty.

A complicated co-parenting dynamic.

In 2021, Richards and Sheen's relationship with their eldest daughter, Sami, came under the spotlight. The then-17-year-old made headlines when she posted a TikTok video claiming she had been living in an "abusive household".

Listen to The Spill: The video that destroyed Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen's family. Post continues after audio.

In the video, which has since been set to private, Sami shared footage of her looking upset with the caption, "One year ago today: trapped in an abusive household, hated myself, would go days without eating or sleeping, insanely depressed, hated school, etc…"

The video then cut to a clip of her smiling with the caption, "Now: finally moved out of the hell house, had a spiritual awakening, own two cats, happy single, full of self love, and dropped out of high school :)."

While Sami did not specify which parent she was living with at the time of the alleged abuse in 2020, Sheen later confirmed that Sami was living with him when she created the TikTok video.

Posts from Sami's now deleted TikTok. Image: TikTok

A source told Us that Richards and Sheen simply have very different parenting styles.

"Denise is just like any other divorced parent dealing with a rebellious teenage daughter," the source said. "It's better for Sami if Denise and Charlie were co-parenting her during this time. They are not. Sami is living with Charlie at his apartment in Malibu."

They added: "Denise wants her daughters to have boundaries, not be out all hours of the night, and she has no desire to be their friend at this time of their life. The time will come later as the girls grow older for Denise to be their friend. Charlie is the 'good time' dad, and well, rules and curfew aren’t really set in stone. And that is why Sami went to live with her dad."

Richards has previously spoken about the struggles of parenting teenagers on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

"I’m struggling with parenting right now with my teenagers. Sami, I think sometimes she does things hoping to get a reaction out of me. It's not easy," she said in May 2020.

This week's episode of Denise Richards & Her Wild Things sheds further light on Sheen's relationship with his daughters. Sami opted to skip the family lunch in the episode, telling producers she would "literally do anything else than go to lunch with my father".

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A post shared by ✩ sami sheen ✩ (@samisheen)

The 21-year-old revealed she and Sheen have hardly spoken in five months.

"It goes in very big chunks with him. For the first 13 years of my life, it was pretty bad and then we were okay for a couple years. And now it's just..."

Lola's relationship with her dad seems less fractured.

"I'm so close with him right now," the 19-year-old shared in a confessional on the show, "and that's such a blessing."

"My relationship with my dad has definitely improved," she said. "We started getting pedicures together every two or three weeks and that's our favourite thing to do together."

The current state of their relationship.

Richards and Sheen have worked hard to have a civil relationship.

In the April episode of the reality show, Denise noted she wished they could co-parent properly for their daughters to realise they were a team.

Despite their messy divorce, Richards reminded Sheen, "I always had your back at the end of the day. I was never gonna hold a press and say this and do that."

Lola and Sami Sheen have very different relationships with their dad. Image: Getty.

Richards also shed some light on the state of their relationship on Jana Kramer's Whine Down podcast this week.

The Bravo star said while they do get along, she wouldn't quite call them friends.

"Truthfully, it wasn't co-parenting. I parent my way. He parents his way, and there was no co-parenting, unfortunately. I wish there was," she said.

"I'm friendly with Charlie, but I wish we were friends and that we could talk all the time and be able to be there, really, for each other with our girls. But that's just not the relationship we have."

She added: "Maybe one day. But right now, there's no discord between he and I, which is great."

Fans will catch another glimpse of their relationship when aka Charlie Sheen drops on Netflix this week.

This article was first published in June 2023 and has been updated.

Feature image: Getty.