Updated

Denise Richards said Wednesday that an e-mail in which she purportedly requested sperm from her ex-husband Charlie Sheen is a fake.

"That e-mail is not legitimate," Richards, 37, said on the "Today" show, of the correspondence she purportedly sent to Sheen's then-girlfriend and now-fiancée, Brooke Mueller. "It's a doctored e-mail. I would never send an e-mail to his ... girlfriend, and, at the time of that e-mail, I was with Richie [Sambora]. If I wanted anybody's sperm, I'd have asked for Richie's."

She also said that at the time of the alleged e-mail, she had just found out that her mother was dying, so she was not interested in getting pregnant — "especially with my ex-husband." Her mother, Joni Richards, died in November 2007.

Told that Richards would be appearing on "Today," Sheen, 42, issued the following statement that was read on the air, saying that Richards' "claims that her e-mail has been fabricated or altered in any way to create this story are absurd. The mere fact the she continues to publicly discuss and harass both Brooke and me three years after our separation which, for the record is longer than the actual length of the marriage, is beyond desperate and speaks volumes."

Richards' new reality show, "Denise Richards: It's Complicated," premieres on E! on Monday.

Sheen and Richards married in 2002 and divorced in 2006. They have two daughters, Sam, now 4, and Lola, who turns 3 on June 1.

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