Denise Richards and formerly estranged daughter Sami send love to each other on Mother's Day

Denise Richards had been estranged from her eldest daughter with Charlie Sheen, Sami, but they reconnected in time for Mother's Day.

The 18-year-old shared a few images of herself with her mom in front of Italian restaurant Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, Calif., alongside a sweet message. "Happy mother's day !!," Sami wrote. "i love u so much mom. u have no idea how grateful i am to have u in my life."

Richards responded, "Thank you Sami for an amazing Mother's Day. It means a lot to me."

The Love Actually actress also mentioned her own late mother, Joni, who died of cancer in Nov. 2007.

"I know nana was at dinner with us she would never miss one of her favorite restaurants," Richards wrote. "Thank you & I love you so much."

The mother and daughter duo a lot better off than they were last year, when Sami posted on TikTok that she had "finally moved out of the hell house," which she said was "abusive" and made her "insanely depressed," before making the posts private. She moved in with her dad, who said she would be taking the GED.

As recently as February, Richards said her relationship with Sami remained in a difficult place.

"Honestly, I have a strained relationship with her," she told host Jeff Lewis on SiriusXM's Jeff Lewis Live. "It's very difficult. I know we'll get back to where we were eventually but right now, it is strained."

At the time, Sami was living with Sheen, although Richards said she'd welcome Sami back at her home.

"But I think it's very difficult raising teenagers now and especially in Los Angeles when there's access to everything. We didn't grow up with Postmates and Uber where you have everything that you want," Richards said. "There are certain rules and I enforce them. And [at Sheen's], there's different rules at that house and that's OK." She added that she did not agree with everything that Sheen does.

Then, in March, Richards wrote a loving birthday post to Sami.

"I love you unconditionally," Richards wrote in part, "and I am very blessed & grateful to be your mom."

Richards also shares 16-year-old daughter Lola with Sheen, whom she married in June 2002 and filed for divorce from in March 2005. She adopted daughter Eloise, who turns 11 this month, in 2011, and is raising her with Aaron Phypers, her husband since September 2018.