07/18/2025
Denise Richards Accuses Aaron Phypers of Abuse, Judge Grants Temporary Restraining Order
July 17, 2025
UPDATE: Aaron Phypers told Us Weekly of the allegations, “Not true. Conjured up. I have the real evidence.”
In a statement to People magazine, he added, "I want to address recent rumors and speculation that have surfaced regarding my relationship with my wife, Denise Richards. Let me be unequivocally clear: I have never physically or emotionally abused Denise — or anyone. These accusations are completely false and deeply hurtful.
Denise and I, like many couples, have faced our share of challenges, but any suggestion of abuse is categorically untrue.
I have always tried to approach our marriage with love, patience, and respect. I ask for privacy as we navigate personal matters, and I hope that the public and media will refrain from spreading harmful and baseless claims."
Denise Richards was just granted a temporary restraining order against estranged husband Aaron Phypers.
Her request for a domestic violence restraining order, obtained by “Extra,” makes abuse claims against her ex, and includes shocking photos of her injuries.
In two of the photos, Denise has a dark purple black eye. In two others, she poses with Aaron on the red carpet, a bruise visible on her arm (see photo above).
She claims in the papers, “Throughout our marriage Aaron threatened to kill me” and states “he owns at least eight unregistered guns.”
Richards also reveals the unraveling of their relationship leading up to him filing for divorce earlier this month.
She stated in the docs, “Throughout our relationship, Aaron would frequently violently choke me, violently squeeze my head with both hands, tightly squeeze my arms, violently slap me in my face and head, aggressively slam my head into the bathroom towel rack, threaten to kill me, hold me down with his knee on my back to the point where I would have to plead with him to get off me so that he would not kill me.”
The star claims he would “hack into my laptop and phone and download all of my text messages. Aaron regularly threatened to ‘break my jaw’ and would cry, beg me to stay, and promise to get help — none of which ever happened. Aaron has caused me at least three concussions. Aaron has told me that he has left recording devices to record me while I was alone in hotel rooms and at my townhouses.”
Richards explained in the papers, “Until now, I have been afraid to report Aaron to the police or file for a restraining order because he has repeatedly threatened to kill himself and me if I reported him to the police.”
Detailing the most recent alleged abuse, Denise explained in the court docs that she moved out of the family home in 2023 due to “marital issues,” and rented three townhouses to use as a home, office and studio.
She states that on July 4, she told Aaron he was no longer allowed at the townhouses and that he needed to move his family out of the Calabasas, California, home. Denise claims he became “enraged.”
Denise alleges in the papers, “Over the course of nearly two hours, Aaron repeatedly got within two inches of my face and screamed at me degrading profanities including calling me a ‘c**t whore’ and a ‘piece of sh*t’ and screaming at me, ‘nobody likes you.’ Aaron repeatedly grabbed my left arm tightly in an aggressive manner. I told Aaron repeatedly that he needed to stay away from me and that he was going to hurt me.”
Richards added, “I was afraid that Aaron may kill me.”
Hours later, at 2 a.m., Denise claims in the docs that Aaron returned, screaming, “Give me your f**king phone.”
Denise said she told him to leave, but, “Aaron aggressively marched towards me, squeezed my arm extremely tight and aggressively and demanded for me to give him his phone. I grabbed my phone and told him I was calling 911. He said, ‘I would like to see the cops take me away, I will blow everything up if they try.’”
Richards said he finally left because she was about to call 911, but allegedly told her as he left, “You are going to disappear.”
She said Phypers returned the next day around noon with his father and began screaming in her face. “His right hand violently hit the bill of my hat with the back of his hand which caused my hat to fly off my head,” she wrote. “This caused me to be scared, terrified and fearful for my life.”
Denise stated that around 5 p.m. she found Aaron in the garage of one of the townhouses. She claimed, “I ran up the stairs to get away from Aaron. Aaron chased me and grabbed both of my arms forcefully and pushed me and dragged me to the ground. I landed hard on the stairs causing me immense pain.”
She said Aaron also “threatened to hack my cell phone and iCloud account and release all the information on the internet.”
When he realized that she didn’t have her phone with her he ran to the office townhouse and “took my laptop, my purse with my drivers license and my suitcase with my passport. He then ran down the alley to his car and left.”
Richards claims she took refuge at her daughter’s house “for safety” because she didn’t have ID or credit cards to get a hotel room.
Fast-forward to July 14, and Denise stated, “At approximately 2:30 a.m., Aaron sent me pictures of my text messages that he had taken pictures of with his phone off my laptop on May 21, 2025.”
She went on to explain that on May 21, while recovering from a surgery at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Aaron allegedly accessed her text messages without her permission.
Denise also detailed another incident where Aaron allegedly became enraged just before she left on a work trip in May.
She stated, “Aaron grabbed me by the back of my head by my hair and slammed me into the ground and screamed, ‘You are not cancelling my flight, I am going with you and I do not trust you.’ I told him to get off me because he was going to kill me. He eventually got off of me after a long struggle.”
In another section of the docs, Denise describes an incident in January 2022 with Aaron in Malibu where he screamed at her and “used the heel of his palm to strike me in the eye while calling me a ‘f**king bitch.’”
Denise claimed, “The following morning, my eye was swollen and black and blue. The bruising took over a month to heal.”
Phypers has not publicly commented on the abuse claims.
On July 7, TMZ reported Phypers filed for divorce in L.A. citing "irreconcilable differences.”
Aaron listed their date of separation as July 4, and asked for spousal support.
Denise and Aaron wed in 2018.
