A Los Angeles judge ordered Denise Richards' estranged husband Aaron Phypers to pay more than $25,000 in sanctions after he failed to comply with discovery demands, the latest blow in a divorce case marked by abuse allegations, a five-year restraining order, and dueling financial claims.
Phypers, 54, was sanctioned twice in a single hearing at Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, Page Six reported, citing court papers obtained exclusively by the outlet. Judge Puente ordered Phypers to pay $10,987 for failing to properly respond to written questions, known as interrogatories, submitted by Richards' legal team. A separate order tacked on $14,775 in additional sanctions, due within 10 days, connected to a protective order matter. The combined hit: $25,762.
Neither Phypers nor Richards, 55, responded to requests for comment. Representatives for both parties stayed silent.
The first sanction stemmed from a straightforward discovery failure. Richards' attorneys had sent Phypers a series of written questions, a routine step in divorce litigation, and he did not properly answer them. The court's response was a nearly $11,000 penalty.
The second sanction is harder to parse. Richards filed a request for a protective order on June 26, and the two sides reached a stipulation, an agreement, in open court during the Wednesday hearing. After that agreement was entered, Judge Puente ordered the additional $14,775 payment. The one-page court filing does not explain why the extra sanction was imposed or what terms the parties agreed to in the protective order.
Two additional motions to compel, formal requests asking the court to force Phypers to turn over documents and other evidence, were not resolved at the hearing. Judge Puente pushed both to December 2 and ordered the parties to meet, attempt to resolve their discovery disputes privately, and file a joint statement with the court afterward.
The pattern is clear enough. Phypers has repeatedly failed to produce information Richards' side has demanded, and the court is losing patience.
Phypers married Richards, the former "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" cast member and actress, in 2018. He filed for divorce in July 2025, citing irreconcilable differences, ending a marriage of nearly seven years.
What followed was not a quiet uncoupling. Richards accused Phypers of years of physical abuse and sought a restraining order. Phypers denied the abuse allegations. By November 2025, a judge made the restraining order permanent for five years.
The financial dimensions of the split have been just as contentious. In February, Richards was ordered to pay Phypers $5,000 a month in temporary spousal support and $30,000 toward his legal fees. That order came even as Phypers claimed he was in dire financial straits, facing eviction and the possible repossession of his car.
Richards scored a win of her own in April, when a judge ruled that her wages and other assets could not be seized to satisfy Phypers' debts. The ruling drew a line between her earnings and his financial obligations.
Celebrity divorces that escalate into prolonged courtroom warfare are not unusual in Los Angeles family courts. But the Phypers-Richards case has produced an unusually dense trail of orders, sanctions, and restraining orders in just over a year.
One of the more unusual threads in the case involves Richards' adopted daughter Eloise, now 15. Richards adopted Eloise as a single mother in 2011, years before she married Phypers.
Phypers has claimed he raised Eloise "as his own" during the marriage. He also claimed Richards never filed adoption papers he had signed, leaving him without legal parental rights to the girl. Richards has not publicly addressed that claim.
Richards also shares two older daughters with ex-husband Charlie Sheen: Sami Sheen, 22, and Lola Sheen, 21. Richards and Sheen were married from 2002 to 2006.
Court-ordered financial obligations in high-profile divorces have become a recurring storyline across reality television. A judge recently ordered reality TV star Jasmine Pineda to pay her ex-husband $20,000 in spousal support after their divorce was finalized.
The court filings leave significant gaps. The terms of the protective order stipulation remain sealed or unspecified. The reason for the $14,775 sanction is unexplained in the filing. Whether Phypers has been paying the $5,000 monthly spousal support he owes Richards is unclear.
What is clear is that the December 2 hearing looms as the next flashpoint. Two unresolved motions to compel will come back before Judge Puente, and the court has made plain it expects the parties to work out their discovery disputes before then. If Phypers again fails to produce what Richards' team is asking for, more sanctions are a real possibility.
The divorce has also unfolded against a broader wave of messy, public splits involving television personalities. Comedian Tom Segura recently called his own divorce a "horrible experience" in his first public remarks on the subject.
Meanwhile, reality TV continues to produce one acrimonious split after another, with court orders, spousal support fights, and public accusations becoming almost routine for the genre's alumni.
When a court has to sanction you $25,000 just to get you to answer basic questions in your own divorce, the problem is not the process, it is the person refusing to cooperate with it.