Actress and reality TV star Denise Richards has spoken for the first time about her youngest daughter’s rare chromosomal condition.
The 47-year-old revealed to People magazine that her seven-year-old daughter Eloise was born with a deletion in chromosome eight, which has resulted in developmental delays.
Eloise, who the then-single mum adopted in 2011, started to show signs of the disorder when she didn’t reach the same milestones as other babies and toddlers her age, Denise said.
“She wasn’t able to sit up on her own for a very long time, and she didn’t start walking until she was two, and that was with physical therapy.”
But she was only diagnosed two and a half years ago.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star said the condition means that Eloise is largely non-verbal and has experienced a number of other developmental delays.
“It’s been challenging. I’m learning every day because they don’t really have a road map for her particular case,” she told the publication.
“I don’t know if [Eloise] is ever going to talk like a typical child. But as a parent, you want what’s best for your children, and you just do it.”
However, Eloise is not the sole priority of her mum, who has two older daughters, Sam, 14, Lola, 13 with her first husband Charlie Sheen.
After their wedding in 2002, the pair welcomed Sam. While pregnant with their second daughter, Denise filed for divorce, later taking out a restraining order against Charlie, alleging he’d made death threats against her.
When the pair’s divorce was finalised in 2006, the Two and a Half Men actor was ordered to stay 300 feet (91 metres) away from his ex-wife and their two daughters at all times, except for during supervised visits.
While Denise was linked to a few men over that period, she raised her daughters alone and adopted Eloise as a solo parent in 2011.
The Wild Things actress told People that a major struggle of that was ensuring her daughters were aware of their privileged position.
“It’s extremely hard to keep children grounded. This is not an easy time to grow up,” she said.
But since she became serious with her now-husband actor Aaron Phypers, 46, she’s at least had help with her daughters.
The pair married in September last year after publicly dating for six months. (Although it’s very possible the couple were seeing each other long before the gossip magazines caught word).
Their beach-side Malibu wedding came just a few weeks after Phypers’ divorce from ex-wife, Desperate Housewives actress Nicollette Sheridan, was finalised.
Charlie, meanwhile, appears to still have a relationship of some sort with his daughters. Although he is not seen with them often, the Wall Street actor was spotted going shopping with Sam in California in June last year.
The 53-year-old also has nine-year-old twin boys with Bob and Max, with ex-wife Brooke Mueller.
He’s also father to Cassandra Jade Estevez, 34, who he had when he was aged just 19 with his first wife Paula Profit. Cassandra became a mother herself in 2013, making Charlie a grandfather to a little girl named Luna.