Denise Richards, the woman who has gone to court in order to use her kids to gain more fame for herself, claims that her daughters are the reason she was able to persevere beyond all the terrible public humiliation Charlie Sheen put her through. She’s still really trying to work the “I’m a great mom” angle that no one’s ever bought. I’m sorry but if you’re a great mom, your kids don’t look utterly miserable in every photo ever taken of them.

Denise chatted up Ellen DeGeneres today about important things like dating with kids and how she endured through all those terrible things Charlie Sheen did to her. Because, you know, Denise never did anything horrible to him, like falsely accusing him of molesting their daughters to get ratings for her crappy reality show.

Trying to find Mr. Right these days isn’t easy, says Denise Richards. Asked on Wednesday’s Ellen DeGeneres Show if she is dating, Charlie Sheen’s ex says, “dating-ish. It’s hard.” DeGeneres then asks if “dating-ish” is one guy or a bunch of guys. “Just -ish,” says Richards, 38, who will star on the upcoming season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. “We’ll leave it at that.”

As a single mom (Sam is 4; Lola is 3), “I don’t want to bring someone around my children who have been through enough… If you’re out in public with someone, then [people] automatically think you’re with them, so….” she continues. How does she ever get a chance to meet somebody? “I haven’t quite figured that out,” she says. “That’s the -ish part.” She then adds, “Let’s say I’m not engaged to anyone.”

Asked how she got through her rocky split with Sheen and the death of her mother, Richards says, “it was probably the worst few years of my life… A lot of public scrutiny and humiliation,” she says. “Before my Mom passed away, during the public humiliation of different things I was dealing with, my mom would always say, ‘You’re a lot stronger than you think. You’ll get through it.'”

“Then, you know, she passed away, so I had to deal with that, which was really difficult,” she continues. “But I think it’s, you know, my kids. I could’ve gone one way or the other, and I have two little girls, so I needed to be a parent…. There is a lot of stuff obviously they don’t know, but I had to move forward.”

[From Us Weekly]

I’ll grant that her mother dying must have been awful, but that’s the most I can do. All the stuff with Charlie Sheen – the “public humiliation” – I’m sure she did feel embarrassed, but she brought a lot of it on herself. And Denise has never taken any ownership for that. In the beginning of their battles, it was hard to tell who the crazy one really was, because both Charlie and Denise were jealous and vindictive and not afraid to act out in public. But eventually Charlie settled down a bit whereas Denise has just kept up the crazy.

I still feel most sorry for her kids. Luckily, Charlie eventually got E! to stop showing the girls on Denise’s reality show. But they still have two of the angriest parents around, who don’t mind using the media to slam each other. Maybe Denise should focus a little more on actually being a good mother and a little less on talking about it.

Here’s Denise leaving the 3rd Street Dance Studio in Beverly Hills on Friday. Images thanks to WENN.com.