A judge ordered Aaron Phypers to pay Denise Richards over $25,000 in sanctions after he failed to properly respond to her legal team's written questions during their bitter divorce fight. The penalties were imposed across two separate matters at the Los Angeles courthouse.
According to court documents obtained by Page Six, the estranged couple faced off at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, where the court ruled against Phypers in the ongoing battle over discovery. The judge found that Phypers had failed to properly respond to a series of written questions — known as interrogatories — from Richards' legal team. For that failure, he was ordered to pay $10,987 in sanctions to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum.
The financial blow did not end there. In a separate matter heard at the same session, the judge addressed a request for a protective order that Richards had filed on June 26. The parties reached a stipulation regarding that request in open court, and the judge ordered Phypers to pay an additional $14,775 in sanctions to Richards, with payment due within 10 days. The two penalties brought the total to $25,762.
Notably, the one-page court filing did not specify why the additional $14,775 sanction was imposed, nor did it disclose the terms of the parties' agreement on the protective-order request. The opacity left observers guessing about what drove the second penalty, even as the total became one of the costliest single court dates of the divorce so far.
The ruling marked a rare courtroom win for Richards in a divorce that has largely gone Phypers' way on financial matters. Earlier in the case, she was ordered to pay him $5,000 per month in spousal support plus $25,000 toward his attorney fees. Phypers, 53, later claimed in a declaration that Richards, 55, owed him more than $23,000 in unpaid support, blaming her for an eviction, the potential repossession of his car, and what he described as a cheap new home.
Other discovery disputes remain unresolved. A motion seeking to compel Phypers to respond to Richards' first demand for production — a formal request for documents and other evidence — was extended to December 2, with Judge Puente ordering both sides to meet and confer to resolve their discovery disputes before filing a joint statement with the court. A separate motion to compel was also pushed to December 2 with the same instruction.
Phypers filed for divorce in July 2025 after nearly seven years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. What began as a quiet split has since devolved into one of Hollywood's most contentious ongoing divorces, with the December 2 hearing now the next major date in the escalating legal war.