Denise Richards and her family’s lives have been touched by “an angel.”
“It’s the best,” Richards says of parenting her youngest daughter Eloise, 13, whom she adopted as an infant. “Eloise is a bright light.”
Nearly nine years ago, the teenager was diagnosed with a deletion in chromosome 8 in 2016. In a conversation with PEOPLE in 2019, Richards, 54, revealed that her chromosomal disorder had “caused a lot of developmental delays for her,” including sitting up, walking and saying words.
Now, in this week’s PEOPLE cover story, the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star opens up about her experience as a mother to a child with special needs.
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Denise Richards with Lola, Eloise, Sami.
Jeff Lipsky
“She is always happy. Everyone loves being around her. The girls are so amazing with her,” she says of her daughters, Sami Sheen, 20, and Lola Sheen, 19, whom she shares with her ex-husband Charlie Sheen. “They feel that I had her, that’s their sister. So they have a wonderful relationship with her.”
Eloise has taught not only Richards, but their entire family to take a moment to “stop and smell the roses” and appreciate the “simplest things” in life.
“She just loves everything, and she just embraces it and is just so happy,” Richards explains. “And the older girls see it too, and sometimes if they go at each other, [Eloise will] just be like… And I’m like, ‘I know.’ And then they laugh, and then they can kind of get past whatever stupid thing they’re fighting about.”
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Denise Richards with Eloise, Lola and Sami.
Jeff Lipski
When asked about her relationship with her younger sister, Sami tells PEOPLE that she and “Wheeze,” her nickname for Eloise, are “best friends.”
“I like to do our makeup and we played tennis not too long ago, and we like to go shopping,” she smiles. “She likes to babysit all my animals for me. We get our nails done together too. We do everything together.”
Like her daughters, Richards believes that Eloise has been a blessing sent “from God” and adds that, “She’s an angel.”
In Eloise’s early years, Richards was unsure of the scope of her diagnosis and how it would affect her life.
“Early on, we thought she would be talking, but she is primarily considered nonverbal,” Richards shares, adding that Eloise is “very aware” of certain dynamics and situations.”
“She’s very observant. She understands everything. And it was a very challenging situation with her trying to figure out what was really going on with her. It was hard,” she continues.
As she’s gotten older, Richards admits it’s been “a journey” as they pass new milestones together. But now she also has the help of her husband, Aaron Phypers, who adopted Eloise in 2019, a year after marrying Richards. “It wasn’t even a decision. It is just is,” Phypers says.
“She’s sweetheart,” he adds. “I love her. I think of her as my own.”