Denise Richards Shares 'Hard' Truth About Charlie Sheen Diagnosis
- Denise Richards had to explain Charlie Sheen's HIV diagnosis to their young daughters after he publicly announced it in 2015.
Denise Richards is getting candid about Charlie Sheen 's health condition, and how she broke the news to the pair's two young daughters.
After the Two and a Half Men actor publicly announced in 2015 that he was HIV-positive, Richards decided she had to share the news with the couple's two daughters, Sami, 21, and Lola, 19, who were just young kids at the time.
Richards, 54, opened up about the experience while appearing on the March 31 episode of Jana Krame r's Whine Down podcast, where she revealed that Sheen never gave her a "heads up" before going public with the news.
"It was everywhere," the Wild Things star said. She then remembered picking Sami and Lola up from school early that day to prevent other kids from spilling the news about their dad's health condition.
"I had to have a conversation about that," Richards added, noting that it was "hard to explain" to the young girls.
Sheen, 59, announced he was HIV-positive on the Today show in November 2015, telling then-host Matt Lauer that he had been diagnosed four years prior.
The Platoon actor had previously been involved in a number of public scandals, including several instances involving substance abuse and a number of legal issues, including assault charges.
Richards, who was married to Sheen from 2002 to 2006, said "There's been a few things that I've had to have conversations with [her kids] about," like Sheen's HIV diagnosis.
"But for the most part," she insisted, "I really tried to shelter them from a lot of stuff."
