The story between Heather Locklear and Denise Richards is one of Hollywood’s most talked-about friendship fallouts. The two actresses were once close until Denise began dating Heather’s estranged husband, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, in 2006. The Denise Richards and Heather Locklear drama never fully healed, and the feud resurfaced years later on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, pulling in a third friend and enemy, Lisa Rinna.
How did Denise Richards and Heather Locklear become friends?
Heather Locklear and Denise Richards became friends while Locklear worked with Richards’ then-husband, Charlie Sheen, on the ABC sitcom Spin City. The Sheens and Samboras even lived in the same neighbourhood. The shared social world made a genuine friendship natural, at least for a time.
The connection through Charlie Sheen and Richie Sambora
In her book The Real Girl Next Door, Richards wrote that she and her ex, Charlie Sheen, often went on double dates with Sambora and Locklear. Both couples were fixtures in the same Hollywood circle, and the bond between the two women appeared to be built on real shared experience.
Richards split from Sheen in 2005 while she was pregnant with the couple’s daughter, Lola. In 2006, Locklear ended her marriage to Sambora, with whom she shares a daughter named Ava.
What is the story behind Heather Locklear and Denise Richards falling out?
Denise Richards and Richie Sambora started dating in April 2006, just months after filing for divorce from their respective spouses, Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear. Actress Denise Richards and Sambora reportedly had a year-long romance.
In her 2012 autobiography The Real Girl Next Door, Richards explains that after running into each other at the supermarket, she and Sambora just clicked and bonded over similar experiences in their own lives. Richards was accused of “stealing” Sambora from Heather Locklear.
Heather’s reaction — and the end of the friendship
Locklear’s filing and the public photos of Denise with Richie made the situation impossible to ignore. According to an insider:
Heather had separated from Richie, and she and Denise were hanging out and hitting up nightclubs to let off some steam, but then Denise backstabbed her by taking up with Richie. Heather felt betrayed.
Denise addressed the rift publicly. Richards said in a June 2006 interview with Entertainment Tonight that she and Sambora did not begin dating until he and Locklear had filed for divorce but that her and Locklear’s friendship was no longer “salvageable”.
In People magazine, she went further:
I wish Heather well. Unfortunately, our friendship had to dissolve and I’m sad about that. The last thing I would want to do is create a media frenzy like this, especially as I’m trying to get through a divorce.
Denise Richards’s and Richie Sambora’s relationship came to an end in May 2007, after only one year of dating. According to Richards’ memoir, before their breakup, Sambora’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer, while Richards’ mother faced her own kidney cancer diagnosis. The couple briefly reconciled in 2011 before splitting for good in 2012.
How the feud resurfaced on RHOBH
All of this drama resurfaced in September 2020 during the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 10 reunion. On the final episode of the reunion, co-star Lisa Rinna brought up her fellow Melrose Place alum during her ongoing feud with Richards, saying: “I go back to when she was friends with Heather Locklear.”
Denise corrected her and said she “actually wasn’t” friends with the long-time “Melrose Place alum. Denise then added, “Really, (Lisa)?” She was friends with my ex-husband, (Charlie Sheen), not me.” A confused Andy then wondered: What went down between Heather and Denise all those years ago?
Brandi Glanville and Heather’s alleged support
The bad blood has seemingly not washed away with time. In August 2025, as Richards’ divorce from Aaron Phypers grew increasingly toxic in the press, sources reported that Denise actively reached out to Heather in an attempt to make amends. However, her efforts were reportedly snubbed.
According to entertainment insiders, Locklear refused to engage, viewing the divorce drama as ‘a classic case of karma’. As one source noted, “Denise has been trying to get in touch, but she’s not getting anywhere because Locklear has a long memory.”
Are Lisa Rinna and Denise still friends?
Denise and Lisa’s friendship went back more than 20 years and appeared to be going strong when Denise joined RHOBH in Season 9; however, that all changed in Season 10, which found Denise at odds with many of her castmates, including her long-time friend Lisa.
When asked about her current status with her former friend, Richards candidly stated, “Lisa Rinna and I are not friends.” She then revealed: “I spoke to her once because, unfortunately, we had a mutual friend who had passed, and so that was only the time we spoke.”
In March 2025, Denise opened up further about the fallout:
Dealing with the downfall of a very dear friend of mine — with Lisa Rinna — that was really hard for me to have to wrap my head around. How could a show ruin a friendship of so many years?
Denise confirmed on the 27 March 2025 episode of SiriusXM’s The Julia Cunningham Show that she and Lisa are still not currently on speaking terms after their decades-long friendship soured during RHOBH Season 10. Lisa Rinna previously admitted to being too harsh on Denise Richards during their Season 10 fallout, leaving the door open for a potential reconciliation between the former friends.
