Credit: Shutterstock/Joe Seer
Denise Richards’ makeup artist, Pamela Brogardi, testified against her estranged husband, Aaron Phypers, in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday.
As the 54-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star aimed to have her restraining order against Aaron, 53, extended amid their messy divorce, Pamela recalled a shocking threat he made against Denise as she recalled covering up many of the actress’s bruises and suspected she “feared for her life.”
While taking questions from Denise’s attorneys on October 7, per Us Weekly, Pamela said Aaron once told Denise, “I’ll break your f*cking legs,” in December 2021 after bursting into a room at his wellness center.
According to Pamela, who said she was “like a sister” to Denise and worked with her during seasons nine and 10 of RHOBH in 2019 and 2020, she heard Aaron speaking “aggressively” to Denise on numerous occasions and covered up bruising “at least a dozen times.”
She also recalled an alleged incident “between 2020 and 2022” in which Denise sported multiple “maybe half the size of my palm” bruises on her thigh and noted that after asking her what happened, Denise seemed “scared.”
“She seemed like she was scared and feared for her life,” Pamela explained. “She was very scared that night. He didn’t care if anyone was around or not. He went after her and that’s what scared her.”
Although Pamela admitted she never saw Aaron hit Denise, she said she had “good senses.”
“I can assure you, if [Denise] said this is how it happened, that’s how it happened,” she stated.
During a trip to Atlanta, where Denise was working on a movie, “around October 2022 to November 2022,” Pamela said Aaron got “pretty heated” because his suitcase wouldn’t fit in Denise’s car.
“I heard a lot of cursing about her not f*cking listening to him … I specifically remember him calling her a ‘f*cking bitch’ and [being] mad about her not listening to him when he said not to pick her up in the car,” she alleged.
But during cross-examination, she said she never called the police or security at the hotel where they were staying.
Pamela then signaled to an expletive-filled argument in November 2021 and an incident in “January or June 2022,” after which she had to apply makeup to a large bruise.
“[Denise] lifted up her glasses and I saw one of the worst black eyes I had ever seen,” she shared, noting that Denise appeared “sad, embarrassed [and] carried shame.”
“I asked her [how she got it] … she told me they had gotten into an argument and Aaron hit her but he was very apologetic about it,” she revealed. “She was almost protecting him … [Denise] sometimes has a way of excusing bad behavior … acts like he’s joking. She was used to it.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Aaron slammed previous testimonies against him as “made up.”
“I never physically harmed Denise Richards… I never threatened to harm her… I did not threaten to kill anybody,” he insisted, via PEOPLE. “A lot of people like to be close to the stars. They’ll do things for them.”
According to Aaron, he never grabbed her hair, choked her, or banged her head, nor did he call her a “c*nt whore and a piece of sh*t” on the day of their separation.
“I’ve never called her a b*tch… I’ve called her a liar, yes. But not a b*tch, no,” he continued, adding that he also never threatened to make Denise “disappear.”
As for her allegation of his causing her multiple concussions, Aaron denied that as well, saying that he never used equipment from his wellness center to examine her before accusing her of calling him 17 times in less than a week, despite her restraining order against him.
“She has many phone numbers… some of them she had before and are inactive or she reactivated,” he explained.