Aaron Phypers Threatened to 'Crush' Denise Richards’ Hand on RHOBH 5 Years Before Allegations of Domestic Abuse

A clip of an interaction between Denise Richards and Aaron Phypers is resurfacing amid her domestic violence allegations against him.

On Wednesday, July 16, the 54-year-old actress was granted a temporary restraining order against Phypers, 49, who she alleged “repeatedly abused” her throughout their six-year marriage. Following the news, footage from a 2020 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, in which Phypers seemingly threatened Richards, began circulating online.

In the scene, the reality star and her then-husband were leaving Kyle Richards' family barbecue hand-in-hand following a tense discussion at dinner when Denise warned him, "Baby, don't say a f------ word. We're on camera."

Phypers then replied: "Don't tell me what to say. I'm going to crush your f------ hand. Stop it."

The comment was later addressed at the reunion, where host Andy Cohen said Bravo "got a lot of questions about" Phypers’ behavior.

"Denise, what was going on there? I believe he said he was going to crush your hand," Cohen asked.

"Yeah, he was going to crush my hand," she confirmed, continuing: "I did, um, because I didn't even know that either, and I played it for him and he said, 'I don't even remember saying that. I don't know why I would say that, because I'm afraid of you.'"

When Cohen questioned why Phypers was “afraid of you,” Denise said, "No, it's in a joking way.”

Her costars felt differently. "Zero tolerance," Sutton Stracke stated. "Zero. Unacceptable."

Garcelle Beauvais added, "I didn't hear it on the show, but I saw it on social media and that's when I was like, 'Oh my God!' And I was, you know, I was worried."

Denise included a photo of herself with a bruised eye in her TRO request.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE on July 17, Denise alleged several incidents of abuse by Phypers, who filed for divorce 10 days prior citing “irreconcilable differences.”

"Aaron would frequently violently choke me, violently squeeze my head with both hands, tightly squeeze my arms, violently slap me in my face and head, aggressively slam my head into the bathroom towel rack, threaten to kill me, hold me down with his knee on my back to the point where I would have to plead with him to get off me so that he would not kill me and hack into my laptop and phone and download all of my text messages," she alleged in the docs. "Aaron regularly threatened to 'break my jaw' and would cry, beg me to stay, and promise to get help — none of which ever happened."

Further claiming her soon-to-be-ex had given her “at least three concussions,” Denise explained that she was "afraid" to report the assaults "because he has repeatedly threatened to kill himself and me if I reported him to the police, among his other threats of harm to me and himself.”

She cited July 4 through 14 as the most recent instances of abuse — Phypers indicated their date of separation as July 4 in his divorce filing — and claimed that day he "screamed degrading profanities" including calling her a "c--- w----" and a "piece of s---" when she asked him and his family to move out of the townhouses she was renting.

On July 5, Denise alleged that Phypers "grabbed both of my arms forcefully and pushed me and dragged me to the ground."

When she "landed hard on the stairs causing me immense pain," she claimed that she threatened to call the police and he allegedly said, “I would like to see the cops take me away, I will blow everything up if they try.”

Per the documents, Denise alleged that Phypers “owns at least eight unregistered guns” and "multiple bullet proof vests” and has “threatened to kill me and himself and the police” since they tied the knot in 2018.

Denise asked that Phypers pay for her legal expenses as well as other expenses caused by the alleged abuse, and requested he attend a 52-week batterer intervention program.