Charlie Sheen On Whether Denise Richards Still Holds a Flame For Him

Time really is healing most, if not all, wounds for Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards ... and he's now openly acknowledging she still loves him.

Charlie and Bill Maher covered everything from baseball to UFOs on Bill's pod, 'Club Random' ... but things got a little emotional when they went over the new Netflix documentary, "aka Charlie Sheen."

Bill recalled Denise "blubbering" as she described Charlie as being "not at all what people think" ... something Charlie appreciated.

The former "Two and a Half Men" star admitted, "It was nice to hear that."

And when Bill suggested "she obviously still loves you," Charlie didn't disagree.

Bill added, "Love is eternal. Passion is often not."

Charlie and Denise ended their famously tumultuous marriage in 2006 after 4 years and 2 children together. At the time, Denise called their marriage "toxic" ... pointing to Sheen's drug use as one source of conflict.

Today, Denise reportedly considers her relationship with Charlie to have been easier than living with estranged husband Aaron Phypers.

Fox News reports that in a video recording presented in court, Denise said, "Things were bad with Charlie and I, but he never hit below the belt."

In the video, Denise was reportedly referring to allegations Aaron leaked nudes of her and physically abused her.

As you know, Denise and Aaron are in the midst of a nasty divorce battle that kicked off when Aaron filed to end the marriage in July, and it's been a whirlwind ever since.