She’s made peace with her actor ex-husband Charlie Sheen, been lauded for her honesty during an interview with Howard Stern and said she’s even friendly with former foe Perez Hilton. But actress and former model Denise Richards said her life is still complicated.
“Yes, I’ve gone through a lot of complicated stuff, but now it’s a different kind of complication — being a single parent in Hollywood, trying to date, working and balancing my career with my kids,” she said over the phone while vacationing in Hawaii.
Richards is the star of her eponymous reality show, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, its second season presently airing Wednesday nights on E!.
She said she signed on for the show’s inaugural season to quash rumours floating around about her — a different story every week for two years, she estimates.
“I’m an actress. I’ve done a lot of movies and been in a lot of TV shows and wanted people to make a judgment off of watching me instead of reading about me,” she said.
But now that she believes the program has drawn people away from “negative press” about her, Richards said the public is beginning to know a different side of the star.
“I think people see that, at the end of the day, I’m a single mom and relatable to a lot of people that have gone through a horrible divorce, lost a parent or have a parent that has to move on with their life, and it’s hard,” she said. “At the end of the day, that’s what sells the show — your fans.”
Fans of her show can expect to see Richards moving forward from past controversies this season, she said. New episodes observe Richards’ experience on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, a visit to her old home in Chicago and her live-in father’s first dating attempt in 40 years, among other storylines.
Such principally common arcs are influenced by the public’s transitioning perspective on celebrity, said Richards, which she characterizes as a move from mystery to tangibility.
And she doesn’t hesitate to express that part of her motivation to renew the show for a second season stemmed from another item almost certainly tangible for her fan base — economic woes.
“I need to make a living. We all want work, in a really s—y economy,” she said. “I have two kids to support as well.”
• Denise Richards: It’s Complicated airs Wednesday nights on E!
