Denise Richards quits Real Housewives of Beverly Hills after two seasons

Variety

A rep for Richards tells Variety that the actress won't return for Season 11 after starring on the Bravo reality show for Seasons 9 and 10. "The drama around Richards during the show’s tenth season has fueled this season’s ratings — Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been the top-rated cable show on Wednesday nights this year — but the actor has clearly been miserable throughout," explains Variety's Kate Aurthur. "As this season went on, Richards had to fend off nearly the entire rest of the cast, as well as former RHOBH cast member Brandi Glanville, who claimed on camera she’d had a one-night-stand with the married Richards. The drama has divided the Housewives fandom into contentious groups, with many viewers being #TeamDenise, others being #TeamBrandi and a third subset of the audience who think Glanville may be telling the truth, but are horrified by her thirsty insistence on spilling Richards’ business on camera. In addition to what Glanville said, the RHOBH cast who’ve pitted themselves against Richards have accused her of trying in her second season of the show to control her image after perhaps being too free-wheeling about her sex life with her husband last year." Aurthur also points out that this past season, the show "has broken down the fourth wall between production and the narrative as it never has before," but Richards was unable to use a well-known trick that other cast members would use when they didn't want something to air. When Richards joined RHOBH in 2019, The Daily Beast's Kevin Fallon called it "the casting achievement of the decade...What I’m saying is that when there is a stroke of casting genius, attention must be paid. We all should be grateful! It is a gift! And that is why we must officially recognize the brilliance of Bravo casting Denise Richards on this season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Scoff or dismiss this because it is Real Housewives, but that would be lame and so would you. It cannot be stressed enough how entertaining Richards is on that show. She is refreshingly unfiltered, whether talking about her sex life with her extremely hot husband Aaron Phypers or casually spilling details about her time married to Charlie Sheen and having him as a continued part of her life, as he’s the father of two of her children."