Charlie Sheen's ex Denise Richards admits she lied to their kids to hide star's scandalous behavior

Richards, 54, admitted she may have "sheltered" her kids too much from the realities of what their father was going through while they were growing up.

The former couple tied the knot in 2002 and were married for just under three years before Richards filed for divorce in March 2005, when she was pregnant with their second daughter, Lola. They welcomed their first daughter, Sami, one year prior. 

"If I was at a school performance, and he was supposed to show up, and I get a call, 'Something happened sideways, hospital, whatever.' I'm not going to tell the kids the truth," she said on the "Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson" podcast. "I told them I lied, and I said, 'Dad had to work.'"

Richards added, "Some of the things were so outrageously bad where I'm like, 'I can't say that.' So I did lie, and I sugar-coated, and I protected him."

"He was arrested on Christmas, and he called me from jail to say 'Merry Christmas' to the girls," Richards said. "And they were busy playing with their toys. They're like, 'We'll talk to Dad later.' I go, 'I think Dad's gonna be a little busy later.'"

Richards shielded her young daughters from the truth of the situation. 

"I didn't say, 'Your dad just got f-----g arrested, and he's in jail so come say "Merry Christmas" right now,'" she said.  

Protecting her kids was always the primary focus, even if to a fault, Richards admitted.

"I actually sheltered the kids almost to a point where, now as they're getting older, they're discovering things, and they were at first getting upset with me, like, 'Why didn't you tell me this?'" she said.

"There was a time I didn't know if he was gonna live, and I didn't want the girls to ever get to know their dad [from] what they would read," she explained. "I wanted it to be their experience and their relationship. And I also didn't want to put on them my feelings because that's not fair to them and their relationship with him."

Despite the challenging times, Richards still insists on keeping the family united, and will go out of her way to include Sheen.

"I even told Charlie, 'I don't care if you're pissed at me. Let's have dinner with the girls. Just f------ suck it up,'" she recalled. "Because they're our daughters. Tthey don't deserve to have their family split. Now your other ex-wife and your kid, you know what I mean? Like, let's all keep it harmonious as much as possible. So that's why still to this day, I still try to do it."

Sheen was famously named as a client of Hollywood madame Heidi Fleiss in 1995. In December 1996, Sheen was charged with attacking a girlfriend at his Southern California home. He later pleaded no contest and was placed on two years of probation. 

Two years later, his father, Martin Sheen, turned him into authorities for violating his parole after he was hospitalized for a cocaine overdose. 

Richards shares daughters, Sami, 20, and Lola, 19, with Sheen, and adopted her youngest daughter, Eloise, 13, on her own in 2011.