Denise Richards returned to reality television earlier this year when she appeared on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 3. Now gearing up for the release of her new Bravo series Denise Richards & Her Wild Things, the actress is revealing how her daughters reacted when she first decided to join the high-stakes competition show.
“They didn’t want me to do Special Forces,” Richards told DECIDER when she and daughters Sami Sheen, 20, and Lola Sheen, 19, stopped by the studio. “They were actually upset with me that I decided to do it. They were afraid I was going to get really hurt.”
Special Forces takes 16 celebrities through a rigorous military training course led by ex-Special Forces operatives who don’t play around. The training exercises in Season 3 ranged from helicopter jumps to bungee jumping to unlocking a safe in a gas-filled room.
“I thought she was gonna die,” Sami said, while her younger sister Lola added, “I did, too.”
“It’s really hard to see your mom go through torture,” Sami continued. “So, I didn’t want her doing it.”
Richards chimed in, “I don’t think they even saw it.”
Unfortunately, Richards did end up getting hurt during her short time on Season 3 — which also featured Brody Jenner, Kayla Nicole, Carey Hart, and Christy Carlson Romano, among others. The Wild Things star became the second recruit to voluntarily withdraw in the premiere episode after rupturing her breast implants while jumping off a bridge. Richards was also recovering from having four hernias repaired, she told Entertainment Weekly following her exit.
“I wanted to see a doctor, and I wanted to make sure that I was okay to continue with the weight and doing stuff,” she told the outlet. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t damage the hernias. I knew the implants, and that was something I knew I could still continue [with]. I was too embarrassed to even say anything about those. But it was where I had my surgery before with my hernias that I wanted to make sure.”
While Richards didn’t last too long on the show, Special Forces trainers Billy Billingham and Rudy Reyes praised her “compelling” appearance when DECIDER spoke to them in January.
“Everybody says they want to get to the end, but the end is you going to your 100% and giving everything you’ve got. And she did that. She got off her chest what she needed to, she showed her vulnerabilities, and then she showed the strength of building resilience,” Billingham said. “She went through a lot of physical and mental challenges that we pushed her through. A lot of them are very difficult, and she never gave up. But she reached her limit.”
“She did have a few little injuries which resulted in the leaving, but it was a good time to go, to be fair,” he continued. “She did great. She got out of it when she needed to. We got to know her. It was good.”
You can watch Richards and her daughters in their new show Denise Richards & Her Wild Things when it premieres on Tuesday, March 4 at 9/8c on Bravo.
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