Charlie Sheen’s ex Denise Richards was in the adjacent room at the Plaza Hotel in New York with their two girls when Charlie had his now-infamous “hooker in the closet” incident, during which he trashed his room after allegedly realizing his wallet was missing/stolen. Denise and her girls were in the city to promote her new show and spend some quality time with Charlie, who ended up being carted off to the hospital for a psych evaluation after the police were called to his room. Although Denise answered some questions about Charlie’s freakout in at least two interviews (one of them pre-scheduled), she was incredibly classy about the whole thing and didn’t get into details, nor did she trash talk Charlie. She just explained that her daughters didn’t know what happened with their dad and that she was doing her “best to protect them from certain things.” Many people thought Denise was exaggerating or fabricating details when she accused Charlie of abuse during their divorce, but now they hopefully know better.

“They have no idea. They don’t know what happened,” Richards told Jane Hanson of “LX New York” in New York City on Tuesday during a live interview to promote Season 2 of her Spike TV show, “Blue Mountain State.”

Richards and the former couple’s daughters — Sam and Lola – were reportedly staying in different rooms in the same hotel suite as Sheen (in the Betsy Johnson designed “Eloise Suite”) when the incident happened according to The New York Post. Richards points out that the girls are little enough that she can distract them from what is going on with their father.

“Thank God our girls are young enough — they’re 5 and 6 and you know, I do my best to protect them from certain things… and so today they came with mom to a few interviews, they went shopping, they went to the zoo, so they’re enjoying New York,” she said. “This is their first time here.”

When Hanson asked how a mom handles “this kind of stuff,” referring to the Sheen incident during which — according to the New York Post — the actor was found naked and allegedly intoxicated on Tuesday morning, Richards said she just stays focused on her children.

“Well, there’s no other way, but to get through it and, like I said, our daughters are at an age where they’re very young and thank God they can’t just turn on the Internet and turn the news on and hear different things,” she said. “I definitely protect them as much as possible. This is stuff that obviously they’re too young to understand, that I don’t want to have to explain right now, so we protect them as much as [we] can…”

While on “LX New York,” Richards would not speak about what happened during the incident, but did mention she was up all night.

“I want to keep what happened last night private,” she said. “If Charlie wants to discuss it, that’s his choice… That’s his decision… I don’t want to get into it. It’s a private matter.”

Richards added that she and Sheen are on good terms.

“We’ve worked really hard, everyone knows that we had a very difficult divorce and I’m so grateful that we’ve — for the past, at least year and a half, we’ve gotten to be close and our kids benefit from it,” she said. “He comes to birthday parties, he comes over for dinner, and school functions and that’s important for the girls that he’s there for those things and it’s so much easier having things calm… He and I [are] still good, no matter what.”

[From Access Hollywood]

Denise was also on the Joy Behar show (video below) where she similarly didn’t talk about the incident and repeated her talking points about how she has a good relationship with Charlie now and is trying to shield her daughters from the news. Someone give this lady a medal. She’s probably protecting her monetary interests by refusing to talk about Sheen, but she’s still showing remarkable restraint.

Charlie is out of the hospital and has reportedly returned to LA, where it’s thought that he will go back to Promises rehab on an outpatient basis. He was not arrested or officially charged with anything, nor has the hotel pressed charges, which means that he might squeak out of being charged with a probation violation for his domestic violence plea in Aspen. The guy even reportedly tested positive for cocaine while in the hospital but has still likely sidestepped any legal consequences. The question remains whether Charlie will continue his plush gig on CBS on Two and a Half Men, for which he’s paid upwards of $2 million per episode. Has he finally done enough damage to his reputation to force him off the air? Sadly, I doubt it. That show is popular and Charlie is the star. Charlie’s rep tells People Magazine that after his “hospitalization” he’s going to be filming a cameo in a movie this week and will go back to work on Two and a Half Men on Tuesday.