#Denise Richards Says Charlie Sheen Divorce Hurt Her Acting Career!

Denise Richards’ acting career has hit another peak, but it was stuck in a valley for years — all because of her tumultuous split from Charlie Sheen, apparently!

In a new interview with People, the 49-year-old — who currently stars on CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful and just wrapped production on the upcoming medieval drama series Glow & Darkness — looked back at the point in her career when she wasn’t so busy, noting that her public divorce affected her ability to book jobs.

As fans know, Richards became an overnight movie star in 1997 with a lead role in the blockbuster Starship Troopers. She cemented her star status over the next few years with roles in the steamy thriller Wild Things, the cult comedy classic Drop Dead Gorgeous, and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, in which she played Bond girl Dr. Christmas Jones.

Related: Andy Cohen Explains The REAL Reason Why Denise Left RHOBH

Reflecting on her instant fame, the Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills alum shared that there was “no real handbook” on how to handle the attention, musing:

“It’s not something you can really prepare someone for… When I would do interviews I was very private, which I’m sure people now would find hard to believe because I’ve done reality shows and I’m on Instagram and stuff. When I started out, they wanted to imagine the actor in that role. And we would do our best to keep it and keep our private life private.”

Of course, Richards’ private life came under the spotlight in 2005 when her divorce from Sheen — whom she met while shooting the movie Good Advice in 2000, and whose drug and alcohol issues were front and center stage in the media — went public.

She remembered:

“It was a hard thing to navigate and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I obviously went through a very public divorce. It was hard for me to comprehend that my public divorce affected my work. I didn’t understand it at that time because I thought, ‘How come? That’s my private life. It shouldn’t affect my work.’ But it did.”

Richards continued to get work while she and Sheen, with whom she shares two daughters, were together, but the actress remembers the years after their split as “one of the hardest of my life.” She reflected:

“That was a hard thing for me to go through and deal with. I just wanted to keep doing what I loved to do and keep plugging away.”

Thankfully, she is now busier than ever, and Denise said she’s “grateful” to be working at a time when many aren’t in Hollyweird. Yet her private life is still very much in the public eye thanks to a dramatic season on Real Housewives, where she was accused of having an affair with fellow Bravolebrity, Brandi Glanville.

The star alluded to the drama in her interview with People, noting that she enjoys having the power to “dispel rumors” about her life on social media. She elaborated:

“It’s hard being misunderstood and having stuff that is not true out there. My older daughters, they’re teenagers now and I can’t keep stuff away from them at all. They will hear everything. I miss the time when I was able to shelter them from the negative publicity around our family quite frankly.”

Denise also likes using Instagram to interact with her fans. She shared:

“The actors that I liked watching, I would have loved to have been able to engage with them other than writing a fan mail and hoping I got a headshot sent back to me.”

We’re glad to hear Denise’s career took a turn for the better!

[Image via Nicky Nelson/WENN]