Denise Richards reflects on painful year amid Aaron Phypers divorce

Denise Richards is contemplating her year of turmoil amid her contentious divorce from Aaron Phypers.

“Looking back at all the photos & videos I have of 2025, it feels like I’m looking at two different people & lived two different lives,” she captioned a photo of herself looking at a setting sun while wearing a black lace tank top.

She added, “I will never forget this year, one of the most painful years I’ve lived.”

The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum labeled 2025 “the year of the snake” and reflected on a “year of shedding, literally” in the Jan. 2 Instagram upload.

Richards, 54, also noted her “year of letting go, truths being exposed.”

“As painful as it is, I’m so grateful for the clarity,” she wrote. “I shed a lot of tears and felt pain & betrayal I never knew existed.”

The “Wild Things” star acknowledged that she “couldn’t have gotten through this year” without “family, old & new friends, this community” and people she works with, and thanked them for doing “so much” for her.

“I’m so grateful to all of you,” the “Drop Dead Gorgeous” actress wrote.

“I did have a lot of blessed happy moments in 2025 & especially the last couple months, I’m finally starting to feel like me again, only better. I’m looking forward to the year of the Horse. I feel very lucky that it starts on my birthday✨.”

Richards wished a happy new year to her fans and to “those of you that really went through it in 2025,” concluding the post, “Happy 2026!”

The vulnerable social media post comes as her divorce from Phypers, 53, rages on.

The actor filed for divorce from Richards after six years of marriage back in July. Richards was subsequently granted a permanent restraining order against her estranged husband after alleging abuse during the marriage, which Phypers has vehemently denied.

Phypers later argued that he’s on the verge of homelessness in documents filed in his spousal support case against Richards.

Amid the drama, Page Six obtained court documents revealing that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge approved the former couple’s landlord’s request to evict them from their rented multi-million dollar Calabasas home last Friday — though Richards no longer lives there.

The complaint alleged that Phypers and Richards owe $84k in unpaid rent.

Phypers and his parents are now “begging” for financial help as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads — Aaron’s mom, Patricia Phypers, has launched a GoFundMe page.

“My son, Aaron Phypers, has been destroyed by false allegations, Hollywood power, and a system determined to silence him,” she claimed on the page, which also alleged that Aaron is suffering the “deepest wound” for the “loss of his daughter” — referencing 14-year-old Eloise, whom Richards adopted as a single mother before her marriage to Aaron.

Aaron has claimed in court filings that Eloise is “his daughter by bond of over nine years” and is fighting for custody, alleging that he intended to adopt her but was thwarted when Richards “failed” to file signed adoption papers for him.

The former couple married in 2018. Richards was previously married to Charlie Sheen, with whom she shares daughters Sami Sheen, 21, and Lola Sheen, 20.