Actress Denise Richards has been awarded a temporary restraining order against her estranged spouse, Aaron Phypers, following her allegations of domestic violence and verbal mistreatment, which included presenting the court with images of a bruised eye she suffered.
Richards, 54, submitted a request for a domestic violence restraining order on Wednesday at Superior Court in California, which was approved the same day.
Phypers, 49, filed a petition for divorce on July 7. The couple wed in September 2018 and do not have any children together.
In her petition for the restraining order, Richards detailed multiple instances of abuse occurring from July 4 to July 14.
Richards stated that on July 4, she informed Phypers that his family needed to vacate the residence they had previously shared, which she had left in 2023. Upon receiving this news, he reportedly became “furious,” began shouting derogatory insults at her, and forcefully grasped her left arm, as detailed in the petition.
The following day, Phypers appeared at one of her townhouses and confronted her, hurling insults, according to the petition. Later, the document noted that she encountered him in the garage, where he seized both of her arms aggressively and pushed and dragged her to the ground, causing her to fall onto the stairs. Aaron’s father, Steven Phypers, also began to yell at her, threatening to inform the media and the internet that she was a “whore,” as stated in her petition.
Richards claimed within the petition that Phypers “consistently abused me throughout the marriage” and “threatened to take my life as well as his and that of the police. ”
She claimed he possessed at least eight unregistered firearms.
Richards also recounted an incident of abuse on May 21 when, she alleged, Phypers accessed her iCloud account, captured images of her private text messages, and transferred them to his own laptop while she was asleep.
Phypers then awakened her and yelled insults at her, according to the petition. Later, while she was using the bathroom, he “struck” the top of her head with his palm and continuously shouted at her to surrender her phone, she alleged.
Richards detailed in the petition that Phypers frequently “violently choked me, viciously squeezed my head with both hands, tightly clasped my arms, aggressively slapped my face and head, forcefully slammed my head into the bathroom towel rack, and threatened to end my life. ”
He routinely threatened to “break” her jaw and would “cry, plead with me to remain, and promise to seek help — none of which ever materialized,” the petition asserted.
She claimed that Phypers inflicted at least three concussions upon her.
