charlie's angel

Dishing with actress and mom-to-be Denise Richards interview

Mom-to-be is a far cry from actress Denise Richards’ personas as Bond girl (The World Is Not Enough), bisexual predator (Wild Things) or the jumpsuited White She Devil in Undercover Brother. But it’s a role she is thrilled to be playing alongside her husband, actor Charlie Sheen, one of Hollywood’s most famous bad boys turned family man. We caught up with Richards nine weeks before her due date and shortly before her 33rd birthday.


What has astonished you THE most about pregnancy?
>>The physical part. To have my boobs double in cup size—they’re getting bigger all the time—and to see my body expand. ... Sometimes I forget that I’m pregnant until I see myself in the mirror, and I’m like, “Oh, my God!”

 Do YOU Worry about your looks?
>>It’s hard. God bless the women who say they never felt more beautiful or sexier than when they were pregnant. I don’t feel that way. I have to sit down to put my shoes on; I can’t just bend over. It’s the little things. I know that it’s part of the process, but it’s still an adjustment.

How much weight have you gained?
 >>Honestly, after I hit the 10-pound mark, I never looked at the scale. When I go into my doctor’s office, I’m like, “Don’t tell me how much I’ve gained or how much I weigh,” because I don’t even want to know. I’ll worry about it when I’m done—right now I just want to enjoy being pregnant and not put a number on the weight.

What do you do for exercise?
>>I work out with a trainer, but when I got pregnant my doctor didn’t want me to get my heart rate too high. I was disappointed because I like to sweat and do a great, hard workout. But my doctor said, “Trust me, as you go on, you’ll be glad because you’re going to get tired.” He’s right. I couldn’t go for a jog now at seven months. We hear you have a lot of animals.

Are you worried about how they’ll respond to THE baby? >>We have three cats and four dogs—a golden retriever, a Boston terrier, a French bulldog and a pug. They’ve been our “children” up until this point. We’ve been told that while I’m in the hospital Charlie should bring home a blanket that the baby has been in and have them smell the blanket and hang out with it. So far, the dogs have been great because they like to dress up. We’ve been putting some baby clothes on them. [Laughs] The stroller that we got—I’ve pushed it around the house with a dog in it.

Do you know what sex your baby is?
 >>No. We don’t know. We don’t want to find out beforehand.

We hear that you’re going with an old-fashioned name like Mary or John.