Denise Richards, 55, says she only admitted to $200,000 facelift after ex Aaron Phypers brought it up in court

Denise Richards is revealing why she decided to go public with her facelift.

The actress, 55, made headlines when she got a $200,000 facelift last year, around the same time that she split from her second husband Aaron Phypers.

During an appearance on The Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg Show, Richards admitted that she came clean about the procedure after Phypers brought it up in court during their contentious divorce proceedings. 

'I figured, you know what? I just need to be honest,' she told McCarthy.

Richards said that she didn't want to give Phypers any 'power' by having him make it public, so she worked with her publicist to control the narrative herself. 

'My publicist got me a really nice piece in Allure,' she shared.

'I'm so glad that I've been open about it. I didn't know how people would react, but I want to know what everyone's doing, what peptides, what this, what that, and I feel that [my surgeon] did such a great job on me that I wanted to share the information,' she explained. 

Richards worked with celebrity surgeon Dr Ben Talei for her deep-plane facelift.

She also got a brow lift, an upper eye lift, a lip lift and fat grafting from her own thighs into her neck and face.

 'Originally I had been thinking about doing just my neck,' she previously shared on Bunnie Xo's Dumb Blonde podcast. 

'And then a friend of mine, she's very well-known, and she's not public about hers, and she said to me, "You have to do the whole thing".' 

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star had only ever done Botox and fillers before, but she ultimately decided to go all the way with her facial makeover. 

'The only analogy I could give is like you remodel a house and do one room and the room looks great, but it doesn’t match the rest of the house,' she explained. 

She then gushed about Dr Talei's work, calling it 'impeccable.'

'He did the neck, the lower face, the upper, the brow lift. The only thing he didn’t do were my lower lids. He did my upper lids.'

She added: 'It was the best thing I did for myself.'

Richards isn't the only one in her family going under the knife, with her daughter Sami Sheen getting a nose job in 2024.

Sheen's surgery was documented on Bravo's Denise Richards & Her Wild Things, with Sami seeking out celebrity surgeon Dr Deepak Dugar for one of his famous 'Scarless Nose' jobs. 

It's a closed rhinoplasty that involves making incisions inside of the nose so that none of the cuts are externally visible, and provides more natural results when done correctly. 

Meanwhile, Richards and Phypers have been embroiled in a highly contentious divorce and legal battle since their separation in July 2024, involving financial and property disputes and allegations of domestic violence from both sides.

Richards was granted a five-year restraining order requiring him to stay 100 yards away from her.

However, Richards was ordered to pay Phypers' attorney fees in addition to temporary spousal support back in February.

The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star must cough up $25,000 in attorney fees towards Phypers' divorce proceedings and an additional $5,000 to a forensic accountant, per People.

She was told that she must adhere to a structured payment plan of $10,000 per month for March, April and May 2026. 

Richards was also ordered to pay Phypers temporary spousal support of $5,000 a month 'commencing March 5, 2026, and continuing in a like manner until further order of the court.'