Credit: Bravo
Mauricio Umansky may be the main cast member on Netflix’s Buying Beverly Hills. But that doesn’t mean his wife, Kyle Richards, is heavily featured. In fact, aside from a brief cameo, she’s not seen on the show at all.
Following the release of the new series, on which Kyle, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is only seen, via FaceTime, after her oldest daughter, Farrah Aldjufrie, gets engaged to Alex Manos, Mauricio is explaining why she didn’t appear more — and why the show didn’t air on Bravo.
“I think that’s just an issue between networks,” Mauricio revealed to Us Weekly on November 4.
Although Kyle isn’t featured, Farrah and the oldest daughter she and Mauricio share, Alexia Umansky, both of whom work at Mauricio’s real estate firm, The Agency, are. But, when it came to signing on to Buying Beverly Hills, Farrah was admittedly hesitant.
“Obviously, family is something you wanna protect, and going on a public platform and just laying it all on the table with family and with what’s going on in your professional life — there’s always a little bit of a risk there,” Farrah added. “So [I] was a little hesitant, but then I figured, you know what, as long as we’re authentic and ourselves and we just show what we do on a daily basis, then there’s really nothing that can be wrong with that.”
As for Alexia, she is happy to have participated in Buying Beverly Hills‘ first season, saying it “100 percent” brought the family “so much closer,” although she, too, admits she was hesitant at first.
“I had my hesitance toward it — because family businesses can be really tough, and we’re such a loving family, and we work so well together,” she said. “But really, when you’re on camera, and you’re doing these things, you’re really forced to kind of talk about things that you don’t really wanna talk about. You’re not allowed to just let things slide. Like, if something’s going on, you’re gonna get asked about it, people are gonna talk about it, and you’ve gotta talk about it with each other. And in doing so, I think the three of us have really created this extra strong bond in going through the hardships that we did and the emotions that we did. And just on that next level that we’ve never really been before.”
During another interview, Mauricio explained that Buying Beverly Hills didn’t air on Bravo because his company is “a global brand.”
“We currently have 60 offices. We’re in the middle of growing, we’re continuing to grow, we’re now in Europe,” Mauricio told E! News. “We actually just opened up in Amsterdam, which is where Netflix has their headquarters in Europe. Netflix is a global brand, as well. It just made all the sense to be on Netflix.”
As for what sets the show apart from other real estate shows, like Selling Sunset, Mauricio said it all comes down to the cast.
“We put ourselves out there with a lot of vulnerability,” he said. “The relationships that exist are old. You know, my daughter, my relationship with her is 26 years old. There’s a lot of history on it. It all starts with a really tight relationship.”
“Nobody was cast for the show,” he continued. “These are all real people that are struggling. We show the rookies, the young 20-year-olds, and allow them to make mistakes. Some of them may not make it. They may not have what it takes to be an Agency agent and be prepared to work for the most successful, luxurious, global real estate firm in the world.”
Buying Beverly Hills season one is currently streaming on Netflix.