Denise Richards’ husband Aaron Phypers applies for a divorce over ‘irreconcilable differences’

Denise Richards' husband, Aaron Phypers, filed for divorce after nearly seven years of marriage to the actress, as reported by Fox News. According to the court documents, Phypers officially filed to dissolve their marriage on Monday, July 7, 2025, and it revealed that they had been separated for a few days before that.

The actress' ex-husband listed their date of separation as July 4, and per his reason for asking for divorce from Richards: irreconcilable differences. Per the docs, he's asking for spousal support, citing the difference in their financial status, especially in the last year.

According to Aaron Phypers, the actress makes more than $250,000 from her reality TV, brand deals, and her OnlyF**s career. Meanwhile, he claimed in the filing that he had lost his source of income when his wellness center business in Malibu closed 12 months ago, saying,

"I had to close down my business last year and have made [no] income since."

Besides asking for spousal support, he also requested the court to keep their assets and debts separate. He asked that he be awarded all his power tools and a 2018 motorcycle, which are allegedly his only assets.

The Denise Richards divorce news came months after her name was dragged into her ex-husband's debt issue. On June 4, an LA Superior Court judge denied the motion filed by a debt collector, to which Aaron Phypers owes $228,000, ensuring that Richards' paychecks are safe from being garnished to pay for her now-ex's debt.

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Denise Richards and Aaron Phypers have been together since 2017

Denise Richards first met Aaron Phypers at his Malibu wellness center, where she went for a "preventative DNA repair." They started dating in June 2017 while he was still legally married to Desperate Housewives star Nicolette Sheridan. While Sheridan filed for divorce from Phypers in 2016, after six months of marriage, their divorce wasn't finalized until August 2018.

Meanwhile, Richards and Phypers had kept the early stages of their relationship away from the prying eyes of the public. They reportedly wanted to get married for a while but had to wait for Phyper's divorce to become final, so it was not surprising how quickly they tied the knot after the proposal—it happened in a couple of days' time.

The two married on September 8, 2018, 48 hours after Aaron Phypers asked her to be his wife, and they shared the news of the engagement with People. Like the early stages of their romance, their wedding was kept out of the public eye, with only a small group of family and friends attending their private wedding in Malibu.

While they don't have kids together, Denise Richards revealed in 2019 that her now ex-husband had started the process of adopting her youngest daughter, Eloise Joni. The actress adopted Eloise in 2011, and she had good things to say about Phypers stepping up as her daughter's father figure. She said in her appearance on The Talk in May 2019:

"He's amazing as a daddy. He's amazing with my daughters, and he's adopting my youngest, so it's really great."

Besides being a father figure to her kids, Phypers also had a role in the RHOBH star setting up her OnlyF**s career. She said in Jeff Lewis Live in 2022, while promoting her profile, that Phypers takes a lot of her content for her. She explained,

"He knows what guys like. I ask him, I show him things and say, 'What do you think?'"

Aaron Phypers also appears in the reality TV series Denise Richards and the Wild Things, which premiered in March 2025. In the first episode of the show, she asserted that she was "never getting divorced again." She said that even if she and Phypers hate each other, they are not getting divorced.

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Denise Richards was previously married to Charlie Sheen.