Denise Richards says she decided to speak openly about her facelift after her estranged husband brought it up in court, because she did not want to give him that power.
The former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, 55, explained the decision in an interview on “The Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Show,” the new podcast hosted by “The Masked Singer” judge Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg.
Richards said attitudes toward cosmetic surgery have shifted since she first had work done decades ago.
“In the ’90s when I got my implants, we didn’t have social media, and I feel that a lot of us were much more private,” Richards said.
“It’s true,” McCarthy Wahlberg said.
“You know, and so I was actually surprised how open a lot of people were,” Richards said. “But, you know, two reasons. One, my ex that I’m divorcing, he said something in court about it on purpose.”
Richards said reporters were in the courtroom but did not publish the remark.
“And I was so pleasantly surprised because there was media in there that they didn’t print it, which was nice,” she said. “But I figured, you know what, I think I just need to just be honest. And I didn’t want to give him that power and have to say it then.”
“And so four months later, my publicist got me a really nice piece in Allure,” she said.
“Oh, that’s nice,” McCarthy Wahlberg said. “Can you remind people in case they don’t know?”
“Oh, OK, yeah,” Richards said. “So in Allure, I did a piece on my facelift that I had done a year ago.”
In the Allure interview, published March 20, Richards said she had the surgery in late June 2025 with Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei. The work included a deep plane facelift, a temporal brow lift, an eyelid lift, a lip corner lift and fat transfer.
It was the first cosmetic procedure on her face, more than three decades after she got breast implants at 19, she told the magazine. She also told Allure that her ex disclosed the facelift during the divorce, sent a photographer to an appointment where she was having microneedling on her scars and claimed the surgery was botched, a claim she called ridiculous.
Richards told McCarthy Wahlberg she has no regrets about going public.
“But I’m so glad that I’ve been open about it,” she said. “I didn’t know how people would react, but I think I want to know what everyone’s doing. What’s peptides, what this, what that.”
She said she also wanted to give credit to her surgeon.
“And so, you know, I wanted … and plus, I feel he did such a great job on me that I wanted to share the information,” Richards said.
Aaron Phypers, 53, filed for divorce from Richards on July 7, 2025, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences and requesting spousal support. The couple married in September 2018.
Court documents listed their separation date as July 4, 2025, about 10 days after the facelift. Richards later obtained a temporary restraining order against Phypers, accusing him of domestic violence. Phypers has denied the allegations.
At an Oct. 6, 2025, hearing on the restraining order, Richards testified that she was still healing from the facelift, with stitches behind her ears, when the couple split and that she felt extremely vulnerable.
The divorce remains unresolved. Last month, a judge ordered Phypers to pay Richards $25,762, including $14,775 in sanctions, after finding he had not properly answered written questions from her legal team, Page Six reported.
Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Richards said she wishes she had never visited the wellness center Phypers ran, where the two got to know each other. She said she had never regretted anything in her life before. “This I regret,” she said.
She also said she unknowingly paid the salary and severance of a woman with whom she alleges Phypers had an affair. Asked whether she would marry again, Richards said no, though she would still like to fall in love.
McCarthy Wahlberg launched the show Oct. 6. New episodes are released Tuesdays and Thursdays on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with upcoming guests including Selma Blair, Teddi Mellencamp and plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow.
