Denise Richards Says She Spoke Out About Her Facelift After Estranged Husband Aaron Phypers Mentioned the Procedure ‘On Purpose’ in Court

Catherine SantinoThu, October 15, 2026 at 3:51 PM UTC

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Denise Richards.Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty -

Denise Richards revealed that she decided to open up about her facelift after her estranged husband Aaron Phypers mentioned the procedure “on purpose” in court

“I didn’t want to give him that power,” Richards explained on The Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg podcast

Phypers filed for divorce from Richards on July 7, 2025

Denise Richards is revealing the reason she decided to speak out about her facelift.

During an episode ofThe Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Showreleased on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the actress, 55, told host Jenny McCarthy that she opened up about the procedure because of her estranged ex-husband, Aaron Phypers.

“I wanted to talk about it because two reasons,” Richards said. “One, my ex that I’m divorcing, he said something in court about it, on purpose, and I was so surprised because there was media in there that they didn’t print it. I didn’t want to give him that power and have to say it then, so in Allure I did a piece on my facelift that I had done a year ago.”

She continued, “But I’m so glad that I’ve been open about it. I didn’t know how people would react, but I want to know what everyone’s doing, which peptides, what this, what that. And plus, I feel he did such a great job on me that I wanted to share the information.”

The Wild Things actress opened up about her decision to have the procedure — which came more than 30 years after she first went under the knife at age 19 for breast implants — in an interview with Allure published on March 20.

Denise Richards’ facelift results.Credit: Ben Talei, MD/Instagram

“I wanted to put things back up, where they were before,” she said of her facelift, sharing that while she had undergone plastic surgery before, the prospect of a surgeon touching her face was “terrifying.”

It was something Richards previously said she would “never” do, she told the outlet.

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“I’m one who says ‘never say never,’ but I always said I would never get a facelift, because that’s my face. This is how I make my money,” she explained. “I’ve been in this business a long time. People know what I look like. I’ve never done anything aesthetically to my face.”

Richards and her surgeon, Dr. Ben Talei of Beverly Hills, Calif., shared side-by-side images showing the results of the actress’ procedure.

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Phypers, 54, filed for divorce from Richards on July 7, 2025.

The former actor, who married TheReal Housewives of Beverly Hillsalum in 2018, listed their date of separation as July 4 and cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their separation.

Aaron Phypers and Denise Richards.Credit: John Lamparski/Getty

At the time of the divorce filing, neither Richards nor Phypers revealed what caused their separation or when they began having marital woes. But in court documents obtained by PEOPLE days later, Richards accused Phypers of physical assault as she requested a temporary domestic violence restraining order against him. He denied he physically abused her.

The former couple met at his work practice, a healing center in Malibu, when she was seeking “preventative DNA repair.” She told the Daily Dish in 2019 that Phypers “works with a lot of different people with a lot of different things. We would start talking about different things because we knew a lot of the same people and same interests.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”