Credit: Rich Polk/Bravo, INSTARimages.com
Denise Richards revealed when things “started to shift” in her marriage to Aaron Phypers, as she recalled when he allegedly first hit her. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star said Aaron became “completely different” than the “person I married.”
Amid their contentious divorce, the court gave Denise a five-year restraining order against Aaron after she accused him of domestic violence. Recently, she was ordered to pay him $5,000 each month in temporary spousal support, despite her request that he pay her.
On the Dumb Blonde podcast, Denise recalled her marriage to Aaron.
“There was some stuff I was dealing with, but I didn’t know I was really dealing with it back then, if that makes sense. I just knew stuff wasn’t right,” said Denise. “I was in an abusive marriage. It didn’t start out that way, though. Physically and emotionally, financially, all of it. He was a completely different person than the person I married.”
Denise said she “absolutely” felt like Aaron conned her.
“We were together just over eight years, married a little over six. I never thought I would have been in this situation,” she said. “Now I get it. Like when it’s easy to say, ‘Why wouldn’t someone leave?’ or ‘You should have known. You should have seen these things.’ And a lot of people ask me that. I didn’t [see]. I wouldn’t have married the person.”
“After we got the green card was kind of when things started to shift,” said Denise, whose estranged husband is from Canada. “[He was] verbally abusive. And it was a slow burn. This wasn’t overnight. It was like slowly chipping away, putting doubts in my head about certain things. And then I’ll never forget the one time when he first hit me.”
Denise recalled being “so shocked.”
“I was like, ‘Oh f**k, there’s no going back from this,'” she said. “[Then] you see who they were that you fell in love with. And that they’re so remorseful. He was so remorseful. And to the [point] where I felt bad for him, where I’m like, ‘It’s not that bad.’ I played it down. I didn’t know even the mental part of it at that point.”
“He knew little things to say to me, to put doubts in my head, to make me feel insecure about choices I was making, and things that I was doing,” she said. “He was like, ‘I’ll help you. I’ll take care of, I’ll help you with your finances.’ That was the biggest mistake I made. … [I thought] he had my best interest. He made me believe he was taking care of me and, you know, wanted to build a life with me.”
Denise then shared when things allegedly started to get physical.
“It was stuff that I could hide on my arms or something. And then he gave me a black eye,” she said. “And that was where I was like … ‘What am I gonna do now? What am I going to tell people?’ … I knew it was wrong, but I was so beaten down … that I didn’t know how to leave.”