Denise Richards Admits She Was 'Incredibly Naive' to Ex Charlie Sheen's Addiction Struggle When They First Met

“I wouldn't have dated him if I met when he was in his addiction, deep into his addiction,” Richards said of Sheen, who she said was four years sober and "a completely different person" when they met

Denise Richards is looking back on how her marriage to Charlie Sheen and how she didn't fully know the extent of his addiction.

During an appearance on Bethenny Frankel’s Just B podcast, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, 52, confessed she was “incredibly naive” when it came to her ex-husband's addiction.

Richards claimed that the Two and a Half Men star had been “sober for four years” when they met and she never questioned that he would “relapse,” despite many asking if she was worried about his sobriety.

Related: Charlie Sheen Compares His 2011 Spiral to 'Demonic Possession' — and Calls Sobriety 'a Relief'

"For me, it was no question,” she explained. “I said, ‘No,’ I didn't know that person. I only knew who I met. And that was a man who had been sober for four years. I didn't judge him for his past because I figured, well, his past made him who he is today. And the person that I met was very different from the person that spiraled…”

Though “a lot of people” would give the Scary Movie 3 actress kudos for reforming “the bad boy,” Richards admitted she “wouldn't have dated him if I met when he was in his addiction, deep into his addiction.”

“He was sober, and a completely different person. So that's who I met,” she added.

Related: Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen's Relationship Timeline

The eponymous podcast host asked if being with someone sober was ever “boring.”

“It wasn't boring. I wasn't a partier,” Richards shrugged. “I wasn't thinking, ‘Oh, shoot. I just started dating Charlie Sheen and I just read all these crazy stories about him and how come we're not doing [those things]?”

Despite Sheen’s controversial headlines, the reality star shared that she “didn’t know” which stories were true. “I just knew the person I met,” she said.

Related: RHOBH Star Denise Richards Recalls Divorcing Charlie Sheen While Pregnant: 'It Was Very Toxic'

Richards and Sheen, 53, wed in 2002 and split in 2005 while Richards was six months pregnant with Lola. (Richards is also mom to 7-year-old Eloise, whom she adopted as a single mom in 2011.)

As fans will remember, it a very public divorce — one that only got worse after Sheen relapsed on drugs and alcohol, going on bizarre rants about tiger’s blood and “winning” in 2011.

“[It was] extremely disheartening,” Richards told PEOPLE of their split in February 2019. “Times were extremely negative and I would have to tell myself, ‘This too shall pass.’ … I was never bitter about my divorce. Going through everything, it changed me. But I love life and I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. And I did my best to rise above.”

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Sheen eventually got sober, and during an interview on ITV’s Loose Women in 2019, admitted that it was hard looking back at footage of his downfall.

“It feels awful. I can’t sit there and lie to you,” he said. “Some of it is very surreal. To this day, I am not sure how I created such chaos and wound up in that headspace. It’s as though there was some alien or demonic possession going on.”

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