Charlie Sheen Reveals How He Accidentally Gave Ex-Wife Denise Richards $1 Million

Charlie Sheen says he learned the hard way that jokes can have longtime consequences when he tried pranking his ex-wife, Denise Richards. The Two and a Half Men staple recently talked about how Richards laughed her way to the bank…allegedly.

“I wrote a check to Denise once for $1 million on her birthday, kind of as a joke, and she kept it not as a joke,” he recalled during a recent episode ofepisode of Kevin Clancy’s KFC Radio podcast. “And then, like, a month later, [she] f–king cashed it.”

Sheen could not remember whether he and Richards were still married when he gave her the check. Regardless of their relationship status at the time, he understood her motives in cashing the check.

“Yeah, which makes it sting more?” he pondered. “But you know, if I’m on the other side of that, I’m probably cashing that check.”

The Oscar winner says he wishes Richard “could have let [him] know” that she was collecting the money ahead of time. “‘Hey, you sound like you’re driving somewhere,’” he quipped of his hypothetical conversation with Richards had she informed him of her plans. “‘Yeah, to the bank, actually!’”

On the bright side, he says he learned he was well off by the ordeal. “But I guess there’s gratitude that there was enough money in that account for that check not to bounce,” he said. “You’re doing pretty good if you can accidentally give people a million bucks.”

Sheen and Richards were married from 2002 to 2006. They share two daughters – Sami, 21, and Lola, 20. The Wild Things star recently revealed that she still has the check. “Found this during my recent move. I never cashed it, @charliesheen,” she wrote over the image of a Wells Fargo check for $1 million on Instagram. “Is it still good?” she joked, per Us Weekly. The check was dated December 11, 2011, which would have been five years after the couple divorced.

Their split was contentious. At the time, she sought and was granted a temporary restraining order against Sheen.