RHOBH Alum Denise Richards’ Husband Aaron Phypers Sued for Fraud Over Wellness Center, Accused of Failing to Honor $63,000 Deal With Cancer Patient

It’s been a while since Denise Richards has been an official cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. However, her name comes up in the news from time to time. This time, it’s her husband, Aaron Phypers, who’s making the headlines.

Unfortunately, he’s being sued by a grieving husband for breach of oral contract and fraud after a cancer treatment failed, and he allegedly refused to return a portion of the payment.

Regarding Denise and Aaron, they began dating in 2017 and got married the following year. Of course, it was also recently announced that Denise and her family would be getting a new reality television show, which she says will be different from her previous forays into the genre. 

According to PEOPLE, a man by the name of Rupert Perry filed a lawsuit against Aaron on November 13th of 2024. He is filing the lawsuit on behalf of his wife, Elina Katsioula-Beall, who passed away in May of 2024. The report says that the two first saw Aaron in 2023 because she had been diagnosed with Sarcoma in 2023. They had learned  that his medical facility could perform “a stem cell treatment for her cancer.”

The lawsuit says that Aaron and his team at the facility told them the treatment “would cure or at least ameliorate Ms. Katsioula-Beall’s condition.” The court document goes on to say, “[Phypers] claimed that the treatment had a 98% success rate and he was so confident in it that, if it did not work, he would refund to Ms. Katsioula-Beall and Mr. Perry fifty percent (50%) of the money they to him for the treatment.”

The couple paid $126,000 for the treatment and returned between July and September of 2023 to have it done. Sadly, by December of that year, his wife learned that the tumors had expanded by about 25%. Because of this, they reached out and requested Aaron to return $63,000, as per their agreement. 

According to the court documents, “[Phypers] ignored her request and instead proposed that she undergo another round of treatment.” From there, they sent requests for the funds on February 8, 2024, March 7th, and March 29th. Sadly, the lawsuit claims these were all ignored. 

The lawsuit continues, “On May 21, 2024, Ms. Katsioula-Beall succumbed to her illness and died. On June 28, 2024, Mr. Perry spoke with [Phypers] by telephone, who acknowledged the debt but proffered a series of excuses for his failure to pay the $63,000.”

Since his wife has sadly passed away, Rupert feels that her estate is entitled to the $63,000 reimbursement. The lawsuit then says, “[Phypers’] aforementioned misconduct was intentional, willful, and done for the purpose of depriving Plaintiff of property and/or legal rights or otherwise causing injury. This despicable conduct subjected Plaintiff to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of his rights.”

Rupert is requesting a trial by jury. Of course, Aaron’s clinic has been talked about before and not in the brightest of light. Fans of RHOBH will recall that it was mentioned on the show, and Denise’s cast members were confused by Aaron’s explanation of what he did. In fact, he has a pretty controversial view of cancer. 

So far, Aaron has not issued a legal response to the lawsuit.