NEWSDenise Richards Is 'Hoping' She and Former Friend Heather Locklear Can 'Talk' Things Out Amid 'Messy' Feud: 'She’d Love to Clear It Up'
Denise Richards is 'hoping' she and former friend Heather Locklear can 'talk' things out amid their 'messy' feud, an insider claimed.
March 29 2025, Published 7:00 a.m. ET
Denise Richards wants to make amends with former friend Heather Locklear after their infamous falling out in 2006.
Denise Richards is currently married to Aaron Phypers.
“Denise is really hoping that she and Heather can sit down and talk this all out,” an insider dished. “Heather is in love with someone new, well someone she’s known for a very long time, but they are finally a couple and as far as everyone knows, very happy.”
Rumblings regarding Richards and Locklear having issues began when Locklear filed for divorce from Richie Sambora in 2006 after 11 years of marriage. Soon after, Richards — who finalized her split from Charlie Sheen the same year — became romantically involved with him.
“The thing with Heather, that’s been hard,” Richards told Entertainment Tonight in 2006 regarding the demise of her friendship. “You can’t help who you fall for and that friendship, unfortunately, was done and wasn’t salvageable.”
Heather Locklear split from Richie Sambora in 2006.
Locklear is currently engaged to her high school sweetheart, Chris Heisser, and, according to the insider, Richards is “counting on Heather being so happy with Chris that she is ready to let bygones be bygones with the whole Richie Sambora situation.”
“Denise has always been very clear that she and Richie were not the reason he and Heather split,” they continued. “Or the reason she and Charlie split. But Heather has never cosigned that and Denise feels like the time for that peace talk may be upon her at long last.”
The insider noted Richards has “always been sad” regarding how things between Heather and her ended because “she did really care about her.”
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Richie Sambora was married to Heather Locklear before dating Denise Richards.
“In her telling of the timeline,” the source elaborated, “they had a big falling out a few months before she and Richie got together, but it’s still messy no matter how you spin it. She’d love to clear it up.”
In a 2008 interview with Redbook, Richards attempted to explain the seemingly messy chronology of her relationship with Sambora, sharing she was “no longer friends with Heather months before” she became romantically involved with him.
“I don’t want to say what caused the split, but she and I weren’t even speaking then,” she said. “It wasn’t ever like we’d be shopping and go back to her house and I’d flirt with her husband. Yes, I got together with Heather’s soon-to-be ex-husband, but no, I didn’t have an affair with him. If Heather and I had been friends at that time, I would never have crossed that line. But we weren’t.”
An insider shared Denise Richards is hopeful Heather Locklear is 'ready to let bygones be bygones.'
Though she was hesitant to go public with Sambora, she knows she didn't play a part in breaking up the rocker's marriage.
“In the beginning, Richie and I just talked as friends because we were dealing with similar situations,” she added. “We never planned for anything to happen.”
Richards and Sambora split in 2007, before taking another go at their relationship in 2011. In 2012, they called it quits for good, and the Wild Things star married husband Aaron Phypers in 2018.
In Touch spoke to the source regarding Richards and Locklear.
