Aaron Phypers has dismissed allegations of physical abuse, claiming Denise Richards bruises easily.
On Wednesday, during the estranged couple’s ongoing restraining order hearing, Ms. Phypers stood on stage and told her lawyer, “Yes,” and that it was safe to say that Ms. Richards was “prone to bruising,” according to Us Weekly.
Mr Phypers reacted after being shown a photo of the actress with a black eye in January 2022, but claimed he did not see the photo until after nearly seven years of marriage, when he filed for divorce in early July.
Although he claimed he had no recollection of the black eye, he did remember that Mr Richards, then 54, had “bruises” around his eyes.
“She was bruising her arm and all sorts of things. She was bruising herself while cooking and falling down,” he testified, adding that he witnessed the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum getting injured “frequently.”
Ms Phypers had previously accused Ms Richards of abusing painkillers and alcohol, but clarified that the bruises she received during their marriage may have been “accidental”, admitting: “I don’t think she did it on purpose”.
Interestingly, a source close to the businesswoman previously claimed that she was drunk at the time and fell while walking up the stairs to Aaron’s (now-closed holistic medicine) clinic Q360.
Sources said Richards “fell on the stairs and hit the corner of his eye, then came to the office for treatment and ice was applied.”
“I don’t abuse my wife,” Phypers, 53, reiterated in court, as he has claimed ever since Richards filed for a temporary restraining order shortly after filing for divorce.
On Monday, the first day of the hearing, his cousin, Kathleen McAllister, testified about the January 2022 black eye.
Ms McAllister claimed: “I saw Aaron hit Denise and immediately I saw a nasty black eye in her eye.” “I’m still literally in shock about it.”
She claimed to have witnessed multiple other incidents in which her cousin physically abused Richards and threatened to kill her.
On Tuesday, the “Wild Things” star said in court that he suffered “at least three concussions” at the hands of Fipers, whom he previously accused of having an affair.
Richards was previously granted a TRO, but wants to make it permanent.
“Aaron frequently violently strangled me, violently squeezed my head with both hands, squeezed my arms tightly, violently slapped me in the face and head, violently slammed my head against the towel rack in the bathroom (and) threatened to kill me,” she alleged in the petition.
“(He) knelt on my back and held me down to the point where I had to beg him to get off me so he wouldn’t kill me or hack into my laptop and phone and download all my text messages.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.
