Charlie Sheen Says He and Denise Richards Are in a Great Place Now: 'We Went Through So Much S--- Together'

There's no longer bad blood between Charlie Sheen and his ex-wife Denise Richards.

"We're absolutely friendly," Sheen, 58, tells PEOPLE as he's recently been opening up about his past, as well as his six-year sobriety.

"We went through so much s--- together that I don't think either one of us has any energy left to be divisive," he continues. "The only thing that matters is the kids. We knew we had to park our nonsense and focus on the children, because they had nothing to do with any of our crud."

Sheen and Richards, who rose to fame in the late '90s as an actress in Starship Troopers and as a Bond girl in The World Is Not Enough, first began dating in 2000, becoming engaged in 2001. They got married in 2002.

At the time, Sheen's career was flying high with the success of Two and a Half Men. But he was also publicly battling drug and alcohol addiction, and the show's creator Chuck Lorre fired him in 2003.

In 2004, Sheen and Richards, 52, welcomed daughter Sami, 19, and the next year, daughter Lola, 18. However, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star filed for divorce in 2005 during her second pregnancy, accusing Sheen of making death threats against her. The divorce was finalized in 2006.

Of his former marriage, Sheen now says: "Even in the hottest portions of depths of the inferno, we were still able to maintain a perspective that yes, the children need to come first. Now we're super friendly, and we're actually able to process so much of it through humor these days."

He adds, "You get a little distance, and it's like, 'Really? We were so upset about that?'"

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Sheen is now quietly returning to the small screen in the Max series Bookie — also created by Lorre, with whom he has since made amends. Sheen says he knows that a return to the spotlight means his past will be dredged up, but he owns that.

"It would be impossible to write about the Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre reunion without dropping in a few nuggets from the demise," he says. "Right now, I'm processing a lot more of it than I would normally, and that's OK. That's OK. If I'm being called to address it, to get inside of it a little deeper because of this [return to work], that's fine too."

For more about Sheen and his life now, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.