CHARLIE SHEEN & DENISE RICHARDS JUST WANT A NORMAL LIFE

He works a steady job. She’s learning to cook. They avoid paparazzi. And in their free time, they take baby Sam swimming in the pool without a nanny in tow. Here, the couple talks about why this is the life they love.

By Anna David

A decade ago, the last place one might have expected to find Charlie Sheen in the middle of a fall day would have been sitting outside a Starbucks in the San Fernando Valley -- with a wife by his side and an 11-month-old baby girl in his arms, no less. But here he sits, gazing adoringly at Denise Richards, his wife of nearly three years, and pleading with their daughter, Sam, to “give Dada a burpus.”

The former poster child for delinquent behavior had cleaned up his act by the time he met Denise on a film set (for Good Advice, a romantic comedy) four years ago. The attraction was immediate and mutual, but work conflicts (Charlie had just signed on to replace Michael J. Fox on Spin City) kept them from dating until a year-and-a-half later, when Denise showed up to guest star on Spin City. Sparks flew again – and this time, the timing was perfect. “After one or two dates, I knew he was the one,” says Denise.

When it comes to Charlie, Denise is as generous with her actions as she is with her words. Today, when she notices that Charlie is facing the sun, she’s concerned. “Is that hurting your eyes?” Charlie nods quickly, looking like he might not have brought it up if she hadn’t, and before he can utter a word, Denise shoots up out of her chair asking, “You want to switch places?” He nods again, looking almost embarrassed, as Denise settles into the sun-soaked seat.

As her parents trade places, baby Sam barely makes a fuss in her stroller. Charlie and Denise are so involved in parenting that not only is there no requisite multi-nanny brigade for their Hollywood child, but it didn’t even occur to them to leave Sam at home for this afternoon’s interview. “I don’t want someone else raising our daughter,” Denise says. Charlie adds, “We’re finding out that [not having live-in help] is unusual.”

Charlie and Denise seem like almost any new family, discussing how they balance parenthood with their respective busy careers. As they taste samples of Cranberry Bliss Bars and nurse double-shot espressos, only the interruption of one enthusiastic fan resets the stage for this interview with a modern Hollywood couple.

THEIR HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY

Before you met, what did you think about each other based on what you’d seen and heard?
Denise: I had no preconceived ideas about Charlie. After I did James Bond and Wild Things, people had a perception of me that wasn’t accurate, so I never judge people because of their interviews or movies or whatever.
Charlie: [glancing at Denise] Sorry, but this is the hottest thing on the scene in the last 50 years. Long before I ever met her, I was with a buddy of mine watching Wild Things and I said, “If I ever got a shot at hooking up with her, I’d be done.”
Denise: Really? I didn’t know that, honey.

Did you ever think that one day you might be sitting at a Starbucks in the Valley with Denise and your baby?
Charlie: No, my fantasy didn’t go that far -- usually it ended with that first weekend in Hawaii. [Denise laughs.] I was just completely taken with the whole image.

Why do you think you make a good couple?
Denise: Right away it just clicked. We have so much in common, but on a deeper level, we really connected. I knew he was my soul mate. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.

What do you have in common?
Charlie: We’re both very free-spirited. We’re not into overexposing that part of what we do professionally. We cherish our privacy. We don’t judge each other, which is important. I’m not trying to make Denise into the person I think she needs to be in order for us to remain a unit, and she’s the same with me. There’s a freedom there that allows us to be one, but to be individuals as well.

What was it about the other drove you crazy in the beginning?
Denise: Charlie flosses his teeth a lot. Even early on, he wasn’t self conscious about it. We’d be watching a movie and, all of a sudden, I’d see him with his floss out. But it didn’t drive me crazy -- I thought it was really cute.
Charlie:I have very specific, super fine, high-end gold work in my mouth, and it’s created gaps. The flossing is more about removing the particles for comfort than about hygiene.
Denise: Still, I found it endearing.

What romantic things does Charlie do for you?
Denise: I came into this marriage with four dogs, and he’s so good with them. He also sends me flowers all the time. At home, and when I’m working. When I get to the hotel, there are flowers. When I get to my trailer, there are flowers. On Mother’s Day, he sent me, like, 20 arrangements. That’s a lot of flowers!

What romantic things does Denise do for you, Charlie?
Charlie: Everything she does is romantic. You know, notes and cards and flowers and back rubs and so on and so forth. And I save all the stuff. There are files, even of e-mails that we sent each other early on. They’re like love notes.

MEET THE PARENTS

How has having a baby changed things?
Denise: Individually, we’ve changed, and also as a couple. We both looked at each other in the hospital and said, “My God, I’ve fallen in love with you even more.” It’s so beautiful, when we stop and think, “God, we really created her.”
Charlie: It changed things immediately and forever. Suddenly you’ve got to step up and do things you can’t plan for, that can’t be taught. There’s a whole portion of parenting that has to be innately understood. On-the-job training occurs.

Do you switch off parenting duties?
Denise: When Charlie’s working [on his CBS sitcom, Two and a Half Men], I’ll get up with her. And during his weeks off and on the weekends, he’ll get up with her. But we both feed her. We love bathing her, playing with her, changing her.

Charlie, how is parenting different the second time around? [Charlie’s older daughter, Cassandra, by high school girlfriend Paula Profit, is now 20.]
Charlie: It’s completely different. I was Cassandra’s age now when I had her. I was never involved in the day-to-day parenting and the responsibility of raising an infant.

How has Sam’s birth changed you?
Charlie: Denise took to parenting like a duck to water. I was just amazed at how just organically she embraced it. She does most of the work.
Denise: Charlie’s always been very compassionate, but he’s become very playful. Also, an unbelievably sensitive part of him emerged when she was born.

Do you catch him playing with Sam when he doesn’t know you’re around?
Denise: I can hear him on the monitor sometimes, playing with her or singing to her. It’s so sweet for me to walk into our bedroom and find him watching a ball game and she’s sitting right next to him.

Are you talking about having more kids?
Denise: Eventually.
Charlie: Yeah, because the “only children” that we know –– with the exception of Richie Sambora, who’s a good friend of ours -- have been problematic. In fact, I can’t think of any other only child that isn’t completely screwed up.
Denise: I have a sister and Charlie has three siblings, so I can’t imagine not having that.
Charlie: I’d really like to retire in the next five years and be a full-time dad. When you do what we do, sure, it’s an amazing experience and you get to do and see things and meet people that most of the world doesn’t. But at some point there’s a lot of normal life going by that we’re not present for, and I just don’t want to be 60 wishing I had embraced that 20 years earlier. I just want to do more living and less working.

A LIFE WORTH LIVING

Do either of you cook?
Denise: I just started. We were getting our food delivered, and I figured one day Sam will be old enough to eat the food and I can’t always have plastic containers, so I started cooking.
Charlie: Denise is a great cook. She makes the basics, Italian.
Denise: I make chicken Parmesan and steak. That’s it. I really need to broaden what I do. Thank God he’s not picky and doesn’t have a refined palate. I’m going to take a cooking class.

What do you like to do together?
Denise: We do, I guess, what normal people do. We go to dinner, go to the movies. We love swimming in our pool with Sam. We have a little inner tube that she fits in, and we push her around.

Denise, did you have any hesitations about posing for Playboy [last December], just four-and-a-half months after giving birth?
Denise: At first I did but Charlie was really supportive, and I thought, Why not? People will have their opinions, but I’m glad I did it. Now I’m a part of something that’s been a part of our culture for a really long time. I didn’t gain a ton of weight during my pregnancy -- I was consistent with my diet and exercise. Still, two weeks before the shoot, I was panicking – it was like, Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this so soon.

Charlie, did you have any hesitations about Denise’s decision?
Charlie: For a nanosecond, but then I thought, I’m a fan of the magazine and I’m a fan of my wife so who am I to say, This is something which I need to interfere with? I thought I could look at this like a shallow, jealous jerk, or like a guy who says, “How many guy’s wives are looking like that inPlayboy?”
Denise: Charlie picked the pictures -- I couldn’t do it myself.
Charlie: It was a spectacular layout. Lots of people will think Sam’s adopted when they see [Denise’s body].