Denise Richards gives an update on her breast implant injuries from “Special Forces”

Denise Richards' time is up on Special Forces: World's Toughest Test.

The actress and TV personality revealed even before the third season of the Fox reality series debuted Wednesday that she had ruptured her breast implants on the show by jumping off a bridge — one of the first terrifying and excruciating tasks that the celebrity recruits were ordered to complete.

A day after viewers saw Richards withdraw from the survival competition due to injury, she tells Entertainment Weekly that what happened to her was more complicated than it appeared.

"So I had four hernias… repaired a couple years [ago] actually when I did Housewives," she says, referencing her time on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. "Also with that harness [on the bridge jump], because it's around that area and then also over our chest, we thought that that was damaged too… But that's all good. I had swelling in the area, but it went down and I didn't need surgery again."

Related: See every celebrity who's failed Special Forces: World's Toughest Test season 3 so far

The implants are another story.

"I still have to have surgery with my implants," says Richards, who's known for her work in movies like Starship Troopers, Wild Things, The World Is Not Enough, and Love Actually. "I just haven't had the downtime yet. I'm hoping to do it in a couple weeks. Either [replaced] or removed, whatever I decide to do. The ones that are there have to come out."

She knew something was wrong while she was still on the show — in which celebrities take on the training exercises of U.S. Special Forces — and thought the equipment she used was to blame. But she truly didn't want to leave.

"I wanted to see a doctor, and I wanted to make sure that I was okay to continue with the weight and doing stuff," Richards explains, noting that recruits had to carry heavy backpacks containing full bottles of water and other supplies at all times. "I wanted to make sure I didn't damage the hernias. I knew the implants, and that was something I knew I could still continue [with]. I was too embarrassed to even say anything about those. But it was where I had my surgery before with my hernias that I wanted to make sure."

Related: Stephen Baldwin explains why he left Special Forces so early: 'These guys are going to kill me'

During the episode, Richards was told flatly that her options were to leave or to stay and participate fully. She couldn't take a break or seek medical attention without dropping out of the competition. (Once the celebrities withdraw, they are offered physical and mental assistance.)

"I felt like I had no choice," Richards says, "but I did want to stay as long as I could."

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Richards accomplished a lot before she left, including jumping off that 130-foot-high bridge (even her family was surprised at that) and flinging herself from a moving boat onto the side of a helicopter. All this despite her fear. During some of the exercises, Richards was visibly shaken, and instructors noticed that she often appeared frightened, which she attributed to multiple traumas that she's been through in her life, including sexual assault and other violence.

"I wanted to be able to get out of it what I really, truly could," she tells EW. "And I was hesitant even sharing that. But I thought, I just have to be honest. Otherwise, why am I really here? I could stay in a hotel and order room service instead. So I really wanted to be honest."

She also wanted to prove her strength, and she was able to do that.

"I am actually very proud of myself," Richards says. "I had the guts to jump off a bridge… I was so happy. Even though I couldn't climb in that helicopter, I was very happy. I was able to at least grab on and hang from there. I never in a million years thought I could do that."

Special Forces: World's Toughest Test airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly