How Denise Richards Told Daughters Their Dad Charlie Sheen Was HIV Positive

Richards shares Lola and Sami Sheen with her ex-husband, Charlie Sheen — and has had to be very honest with the two girls about their father’s headline-making behavior.

“They weren’t ones to Google us because we’re mom and dad,” Richards said during Jana Kramer’s Whine Down podcast.

“There were things that I would tell them like, ‘You might hear something at school. If you have any questions, please come to me.’ And they didn’t even ask,” she shared.

However, one piece of news she wasn’t prepared for was when Sheen revealed he was HIV positive in 2015.

“I did have to tell them, because this is where I was kind of upset with Charlie that he didn’t warn me when he came out publicly that he has HIV,” Richards added.

Richards recalled going to pick the girls up from school early that day, as headlines flooded the news cycle with their dad’s reveal.

“It was everywhere. I think I picked them up early from school that day because I didn’t want kids at school to tell them. I had to have a conversation about that,” she shared.

She revealed that while she tried to “shelter” them for the most part from headlines about their father, the HIV conversation was the “only time” she recalled having to share such serious information with them.

Elsewhere in the interview, Richards reveals where her and Sheen stood as co-parents when raising their children.

“Truthfully there was no co-parenting, I parent my way, he parents his way and there was no co-parenting unfortunately, I wish there was,” The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum said.

As for where the former couple are now, she said, “I’m friendly with Charlie but I wish we were friends and that we would talk all the time and be able to be there for each other and our girls. But that’s just not the relationship we have, there’s no discord between he and I, which is great.”

She went on to say that she never talked ill of Sheen in front of their kids which now she looks back as may being a disservice for them as “they are older” and “discovering things they didn’t know.”

See more about her recent reunion with her ex on her reality show here. 

Denise Richards & Her Wild Things airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.