Denise Richards Opens Up About Keeping Ex-Husband Charlie Sheen’s Troubles Away From Their Daughters: ‘It Does Become Difficult’

Denise Richards is speaking out about Charlie Sheen’s recent alleged troubles after Nina Tassler, President of CBS’ network entertainment division, admitted on Friday that the network has a “high level of concern” regarding the actor’s alarming behavior.

“I think a lot of people are concerned about Charlie and my concern is obviously – what becomes difficult is things become so public,” Denise told Billy Bush in an interview for Access Hollywood and “The Billy Bush Show” on Wednesday. “I try my best to keep that quiet from our daughters because, you know, this is something I’ve never dealt with in my life until this situation.

“I’m learning how to deal with it and just keeping a lid on it for our kids has been my main priority and it does become difficult,” Denise added.

The 39-year-old actress/reality star filed for divorce from Charlie in March 2005 after three years of marriage and the former couple’s split was finalized in November 2006.

Denise has two children, Sam, 6, and Lola, 5, with the “Two and a Half Men” star, whom she and Charlie attempt to co-parent as civilly as possible.

“When things went awry in New York, you were attempting to, you know, go to the Natural History Museum together and to normalize the relationship of dad and mom apart, but for the kids’ sake,” Billy said, in reference to Charlie’s infamous October NYC evening, where he was allegedly found naked and intoxicated by police in a “trashed” room at The Plaza Hotel, according to The New York Post.

“Are you still making efforts in that regard?” Billy asked Denise.

“Yeah. Thankfully, the last — I would say two years, Charlie and I have been in such a much better place and it makes it so much easier for our daughters,” she told Billy. “When we went to New York, that was our intention — to have a nice time with the girls and I thought it was great that we could all travel together and go out to dinner and do things even though we’re not together anymore.

“The events that took place after that, you know, it was … difficult,” Denise said.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, CBS’ Tassler recently spoke openly about her “concern” for the “Two and a Half Men” star.

“We have a high level of concern and how could we not?” Tassler told reporters last Friday at the Television Critics Association Winter 2011 Session. “On a very basic human level, concern, of course. This man is a father; he’s got children; he has a family… but you can’t look at it simplistically.”

Sheen made headlines after an alleged Sin City tryst in which he was reportedly partying with porn stars. He then returned to Vegas the next weekend, where he joined Drew Carey on stage during an improv comedy show.

The actor was sent to the hospital late last year after his aforementioned NYC wild weekend, which also involved an adult film star. Also, last year the actor was sentenced over an incident of domestic violence against then-wife Brooke Mueller in Colorado stemming from a Christmas Day 2009 incident.

“Charlie is a professional. He comes to work, he does his job extremely well,” Tassler added during her TCA speech. “We’re taping tonight. As I said, it’s very complicated.”

Tassler said the actor is aware of CBS’ concerns, but that nothing has affected plans for the show.

“I don’t know what personal concern — what personal information has been given to him, but he certainly knows how we feel… he knows the level of concern that we have,” she said at the time. “Right now, the show continues to be as successful as it always is. Everyone is doing their job and things are continuing as planned.”