Returning Real Housewives of Beverly Hills personality Denise Richards was emotional in court, explaining the abuse she endured at the hands of her estranged husband, Aaron Phypers.
PEOPLE reported, “On Monday, Oct. 6, the exes attended a hearing relating to the temporary restraining order Richards was granted in July.”
Denise testified that Aaron “would often threaten to throw me through the windows and off balconies” of hotels. Tearfully, she revealed, “He’s almost killed me so many damn times.”
Content Warning – DV:
Earlier in her testimony, Denise detailed what led to their split on July 4, 2025. She asked Aaron to leave their shared townhouses. “He got very angry at me and volatile, he got very close to me.”
“I had just recovered from a full facelift,” explained the Drop Dead Gorgeous actress. “I still had stitches behind my ears, and I felt extremely vulnerable.”
Denise said she was feeling “pain.” So, she suggested that Aaron stay at their old house, where his family was living at the time. She ended up leaving their shared townhome that night and sleeping on her office sofa next door.
Regarding how their fights would become physical, Denise explained, “He would get as close as a couple of inches from my face. He would grab my arms and he would yell, call me names.” Denise stated Aaron called her a “cheating wh*re, a c*nt, and a lying bitch.”
“Emotionally, it was hard for me to understand. Especially with having what he has done for a living, working in the wellness space, that he would know how much that this would affect me emotionally. And it just made me feel vulnerable, it made me feel scared, it made me feel sad. It made me feel intimidated by him. He’s very big. I’m a lot smaller than him,” she noted.
The abuse gets more graphic, fyi:
On July 5, Aaron and his father came into the room where Denise was sleeping. Allegedly, Aaron threatened to release naked photos found on Denise’s phone in April. She claimed Aaron “took the back of his left hand and hit the back of her left ear.”
Denise recalled, “I was wearing a baseball cap. My head moved. He flipped the hat off very aggressively. I still had stitches on one side of the ear… which caused some bleeding and so much pain because I had incisions on both sides.”
She claimed she told Aaron that he “hurt” her. He said, “I didn’t touch you.” He turned around and walked away with his dad.
Richards said she called Phypers’ mom and began to dial 911, but Phypers allegedly threatened her by saying, “Something very dangerous is going to happen to you. You’re going to disappear.”
There’s more 😭:
In September, after Richards got a temporary restraining order against Phypers, they had another incident at her townhouse when he returned to take his laptop. She accused him of asking for her phone, which she hid in her shorts.
He “grabbed me by both arms and then pushed me down on the stairs,” she alleged before claiming Aaron left with his laptop, along with her purse and credit cards.
Other incidents allegedly occurred several months prior as well, including one night in April when the pair were at a hotel in Chicago for ComicCon. The actress stated that her estranged husband brought up her previous texts with another man and started “grabbing me, pushing me down.”
Denise claimed “his fingers were around my face.” She told Aaron that he was going to “give me a bruise.” She also allegedly said, “Please stop, you’re hurting me.”
The following month, Richards was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles after having a seven-hour surgery on her breasts and stomach. She claimed she fell asleep and gave Phypers her laptop password to watch TV but was quickly woken up by him “being very hostile and aggressive” about her messages with another man.
“He sat me down on the toilet and I was shaking, holding my phone on my lap.” Denise continued, “He said, ‘Give me your f*cking phone.'”
He then allegedly “hit me with his right hand” and the drain for her surgery recovery was damaged. Crying, Richards said she asked why Phypers hit her and he allegedly replied, “I didn’t hit you, I need your f*cking phone.”
