I would have been more surprised if they had stayed together…
News flash for all you celebrity couple watchers: Denise Richards and Richie Sambora have called it quits.
According to TV’s “Entertainment Tonight,” the couple’s reps confirmed that the pair broke up about two months ago.
It may seem strange that it took most media outlets eight weeks to report the the news that two are no longer together, but if you consider that Richards and Sambora were still appearing at personal and public functions on each other’s arms I could see why some were thrown for a loop.
Personally, the relationship was so bizarre to begin with, I’m not sure anyone (tabloid reporters included) cared much to scrutinize the method behind madness. You’ll recall that Richards and Sambora hooked up shortly after splitting from their own high profile spouses Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear, respectively. In fact, the relationship between Richards and Sambora had tongues wagging from the get-go.
It was an ugly picture all around. Richards and Sheen were embattled in a bitter custody battle over their two very young daughters, while Sambora and Locklear were ending their own marriage. Then the real shocker: within weeks of the double break up, shots of Richards and Sambora began surfacing and it didn’t take long before the couple confirmed that they were indeed “in love.” Never mind that Richards and Locklear were considered best buds prior to Richards hooking up with Sambora.
Fast forward about 23 months and the last pictures of Richards and Sambora splashed in various entertainment magazines were those taken late last month when they attended the funeral of Sambora’s father, who died of lung cancer in New Jersey. But, as it turns out, a source close to Richards told one magazine; Richards ended things a month earlier, but wanted to be there for Sambora “as a friend.”
A rep for Sambora confirmed the split and called it “amicable.”
“They did break up about a month prior to Richie’s dad’s death,” the rep said. “She came to the funeral to support him. He needs to focus on his daughter Ava and wishes Denise and her kids all the best.”
Oddly enough, a few months earlier I thought Richards and Sambora’s coupling had at least a few good months left in it since both were going through tough times together. In February Richards told PEOPLE magazine that her mother had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and she and Sambora were helping each other cope with their parents’ illnesses. Now we know that she broke up with him a few weeks after making that comment.
I should have gone with my gut.
An unexpected split—not even close.
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