'Don't know how I'm here': Emotional Denise Richards reflects on marriage to Charlie Sheen in new documentary

An emotional Denise Richards has broken down in tears while reflecting on her short-lived marriage to Charlie Sheen and the aftermath in the first look at the documentary about his life.

Richards, who was married to Sheen from 2002 to 2006, says she doesn't know "how I'm here" with "what he put me through", and admitted she wouldn't have made it had she not been a strong woman.

Richards and Sheen had a famously volatile relationship both during and after their marriage, with the former Bond girl often alluding to their ongoing struggles during her time on reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Watch the video above.

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Now the pair have seemingly put their past behind them, with Richards among those to take part in the new two-part Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen.

In a clip Netflix shared to Instagram, Richards struggles to speak during filming of the documentary, which has been released to coincide with Sheen's 60th birthday on September 3.

"Sorry," she says as she fights back tears. "Sorry you guys."

When someone off camera suggests they take a break, Richards responds, "I don't care if they record," then added firmly, "No they should record... you're doing an f---ing docuseries.

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"It's fine. I don't care, because it's true. If you're going to get the truth, get the f---ing truth.

"The truth is, I feel like my life with Charlie is three stages.

"It's the time I met him and married him, then my divorce and then the aftermath of it.

"I'm sorry to get so f---ing emotional about it because it was a lot, and I've had to f---ing hold it together."

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Richards, now 54, and Sheen started dating in 2001.

After a whirlwind romance, they became engaged on Boxing Day that year and married just six months later.

They had daughter Sami in 2004. Richards was pregnant with their second daughter, Lola, when she filed for divorce.

She later told Oprah Winfrey that Sheen pushed her and made threats that she claimed left her "terrified" for her life.

Their divorce was finalised in November 2006 but they continued to have an acrimonious relationship, mostly over child support, for many years.

According to People, Richards, elaborated about their time together in the documentary.

"What he put me through, I don't know how I'm here to be honest," she said.

"I think the only way through tragedy, what I was going through, was having a f---ing sense of humour because it was so bad…

"I know the outside people would think we're crazy, making fun like, 'Remember when you took a baseball bat to all the TVs?'

"I think that if I wasn't a strong person, I would have gone down a very dark road just to deal with all of this s---."

Richards reveals the relationship began to deteriorate during Sheen's time on sitcom Two and a Half Men.

"As soon as the show started getting really successful, I think the pressure of that changed him," she said.

"It was almost like he was sabotaging the success and sabotaging our family. When things started to go good, I felt like things were being sabotaged."

She said his substance abuse led to "irrational anger" and the shift in him happened quickly.

She said she tried to seek help, but was shut down by people in his life.

"I remember reaching out to his [sober] sponsor and saying I was concerned.

"But people in his circle were like, 'It's your hormones. You're postpartum.' I was like, 'No. There's something f---ing wrong'," she said. 

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"That's when I started to see that people in his life were trying to, I felt, kind of pit us against each other, even though we were married and we had a kid, and another baby on the way, and it was – that was very difficult for me.

"And I'm not just this quiet wife. I'm a strong woman, and I'll say, like, something is not right." 

Sheen also told the documentary he regretted his actions when it came to their relationship.

"I made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be. And I feel awful about that to this day," he said.

The two are now in a better place, even joking around on the red carpet at the premiere last week.

Sheen gave up alcohol in 2017 and stopped taking drugs before that.

In a recent interview with People, he said he stayed sober by keeping a mental checklist of the "worst, most shameful things I've done, and I can look at that in my head if I feel like having a drink".

aka Charlie Sheen is now on Netflix.

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