What Happened Between Denise Richards and Heather Locklear?

Congratulations: when Lisa Rinna tells you to Google something, you do it! I’m guessing you’re here because of those clear instructions during Part 3 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion when Denise Richards and Heather Locklear’s…something was brought up. What is that something, exactly? Well, I did a pre-Google search for you to get to the bottom of it.

First of all, let’s just give a shoutout to Denise who was texting without a care in the world while the clip of Rinna tearfully apologizing to her in Rome played on the screen, the true indication that she was already checked out of this entire show. Though she really proved it when Andy Cohen asked her, “How do you think Lisa Rinna has changed?” and she responded by saying, “I think I need to eat something before I answer this question.” Hey, low blood sugar is no joke! And even though Rinna called after her, “I’d like to know the answer!” Denise got up from her chair and walked away from the camera set up in her home.

She did return moments later with a stack of papers and her shoes in hand, saying “No, I’m done. I have to go to work tomorrow, I have 48 pages.” But she ultimately sat back down and answered the question saying, “I think Lisa is very different on the show and she’s turned on me.” Well, you haven’t seen anything yet. Because Rinna goes on to declare she, “Would’ve not had Denise come on this show if I were to do it over again,” then bringing up another feud from Denise’s past.

As if mentioning the text messages Brandi Glanville showed the whole group about her alleged friendship with Denise wasn’t enough, Rinna then said, “You know, I go back to when she was friends with Heather Locklear.”

“I actually wasn’t Lisa, and you know that. To bring that up, really? She was friends with my ex-husband, come on. Now you’re grasping at straws,” Denise tells her. And while Rinna doesn’t continue, Cohen, like the rest of us, wants to know, “I don’t understand the Locklear reference.”

“Well, she’s insinuating that I’m such a bad friend,” Rinna begins, though Denise refutes it, and the conversation stalls once more. But, earning that paycheck, Cohen presses, “Can you clue me in about the Heather Locklear thing? I’m sorry to keep bringing it up but I’m kind of interested.”

“Lisa, that is low,” Denise tells her, and Rinna only responds, “Just Google it. Google it.” And so we all have now!

Of course, this might not be a surprise for folks that tuned in to watch Brandi on Watch What Happens Live last week. When Cohen asked her which non-Bravolebrities have reached out to declare they were on #TeamBrandi, Brandi said, “I would say maybe Heather Locklear.”

“Really? The two of you have been chatting on DM?” Cohen asked.

“Heather just reached out to me and said thank you with a bunch of hearts and prayers [emojis],” Brandi relayed. “It just made me feel like I was probably bringing this side of Denise out for everyone to see. I wrote back ‘Of course the truth always comes out,’ and she wrote a bunch of more hearts. Then I say, ‘Hey, you should be on Watch What Happens Live with me.’ And she said, ‘I already had a cease and desist from Denise so I’m not gonna do it.'”

If that is the case, the cease and desist likely happened sometime between 2008-2012 when Denise Richards, fresh off her split from Charlie Sheen, started dating Heather Locklear’s ex-husband Richie Sambora. Except that it might have been JUST when he became her ex. Rumors swirled that Denise was responsible for breaking up their marriage, but in an interview with Redbook magazine, she defended her relationship with Sambora, and pointed to an earlier dissolution of her friendship with Locklear.

“I was no longer friends with Heather months before Richie and I got together,” Richards said. “I don’t want to say what caused the split, but she and I weren’t even speaking then. 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. The friendship was not salvageable, and in the beginning, Richie and I just talked as friends because we were dealing with similar situations. We never planned for anything to happen.”

Though it sounds like she did take the advice of her former friend Rinna and “owned” any doubts she may have had, adding, “Did I question the decision? Yes. Did I know it wouldn’t go over well? Of course. I’m a grown woman and I know what I did and the repercussions of it. I get why the public thinks I’m an awful person who stole someone’s husband. But in my heart, I know I did not break up their marriage. If either Richie or I had felt our marriages were fixable, we wouldn’t have crossed that line.”

It turns out, that’s not the only man they’ve had in common, as Denise and Heather also shared fictional flings with Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) when they were in character on ’90s drama series Melrose Place, where Heather played the infamous Amanda Woodward and Denise played, get this…a character named Brandi Carson. Insert a bunch of heart and prayer emojis here.

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