Kyle Richards may be a current cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t thought about leaving. In fact, during a recent podcast appearance, she confirmed she actually quit the series amid season four.
While also addressing rumors claiming her separation from Mauricio Umansky, 53, is fake, sharing the biggest misconception fans have about her, and explaining why she’s nervous about sister Kathy Hilton, 64, watching the new season, Kyle, 54, looked back on her near-exit from the Bravo reality series and reacted to the suggestion she has producer control.
“They always are paranoid and think they’re gonna be set up or tricked,” Kyle said of her castmates on the November 14 episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast, signaling to a season 13 moment with Denise Richards, 52.
“This past season… We were trying to tell [Denise] something and she said ‘I know what you’re doing. I know exactly what’s going on here.’ … That happens a lot,” Kyle admitted.
But while she denied having control over production, Kyle confessed to calling the cameras to have them film a scene of her and her castmates, including Adrienne Maloof, 62, Lisa Vanderpump, 63, and Brandi Glanville, 50, drunk in Ojai during season three.
“I remember calling down and saying, ‘I think you need to get up here. Do you have a small camera you can bring?’ So they came up and they filmed that scene,” she recalled. “I’m so proud that I said to bring up that camera. We didn’t want to miss that moment.”
Although she and sister Kathy made amends earlier this year after suffering a falling out amid season 12 due to claims Lisa Rinna, 60, made concerning Kathy’s alleged threats against Kyle’s family, Kyle shared that when it comes to season 13, she’s nervous about a potential regurgitation of their issues.
“The last reunion … I was so emotional that I thought, ’That’s really it with my sister and our kids and everything’ and I was devastated,” Kyle shared. “And when it came up on the show [during season 13] … since I thought it was done, I was very honest in the moment and now we’re okay again and I’m stressed that, ‘What did I say in the moments where I thought we were done?’ Because I don’t want that to kick everything up and ruin my relationship again.”
“That scares me,” she continued. “It’s so hard with my family because I’m like, ‘Are they gonna understand?’ I don’t want everything to have to be like, ’That’s it. We’re done.’ Why can’t we have an argument and make up like normal people?”
Kyle then offered a message directly to her sister, saying, “Kathy, I said these things when I was upset and I really thought we weren’t going to speak again and I really hope it doesn’t damage our relationship because I’m so happy when we’re in a good place.”
As for the biggest misconception she feels fans have of her from RHOBH, Kyle signaled to the type of person she truly is.
“A lot of people assume if you’re on reality television that you’re not a decent human being, that you’re not intelligent, that you’re not honest, that you’ll do anything for fame and attention or as people like to say, to be relevant, which is the most annoying comment. And that’s something that really bothers me because I know I’m actually all of those things,” she noted. “I’m so done with people thinking that and I do find myself wanting to prove that over and over.”
Another misconception Kyle believes fans have is thinking she doesn’t care for her castmates.
“There’s things that they do I don’t like sometimes, a lot, but I like all of them and I share things with them and I’m an open person,” she revealed. “I share too much of my personal stuff and sometimes they’ll say things and I’m like, ‘That’s not cool to say things I’ve shared with you.’ I’ve never actually done that, in all of these years, even when Brandi and I couldn’t stand each other.
According to Kyle, when she knows something about someone that was told to her in private, she does not repeat it.
“When I see that stuff, I’m like, ‘Some people will do anything for a show,’” she explained.
When Kyle was then asked about the rumors of fake separation from Mauricio, she wanted to know, “What human being would create a story like this for ratings [and] put their family through this?”
“That is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in these 13 years,” she complained. “I’m going to pretend that I’m separated and torture my children so that people tune in? I’m not looking to be more relevant. I‘m good. And I would never put my family through this ever for a… dumb f*cking TV show.”
But that isn’t the only rumor she’s heard about her marriage in recent months.
“I also hear things online that, ‘Kyle and Mauricio, they have an open marriage.’ ‘Kyle’s only with him for the money’ … He had no money when I married him you idiots!” she clapped back. “‘She just stays there and puts up with this so she can keep spending his money.’ It’s our money that he didn’t have before.”
Also on the debut episode of Bravo’s new podcast, Kyle said she quit amid season four.
After first noting that she said she quit after the season one scene of her and Kim Richards, 59, in the limo, where she called Kim out as an alcoholic, but didn’t mean it, Kyle confirmed she “genuinely meant it” during season four.
“It was at [Carlton Gebbia]’s house and I remember when Brandi brought up the tabloids [about Mauricio’s alleged cheating] and then [Yolanda Hadid] and Lisa were like, ‘You mean there’s no smoke without fire?’ I had a lump in my throat,” she revealed. “I texted under the table and I said, ‘Bring my car around. I quit. I’m done with this f*cking show.’ And I really did mean it. I just thought, ‘I can’t live like that.’”
Kyle also said she considered quitting amid season five after she and Kim butted heads in Amsterdam.
“There’s so many times on this show when things have happened and I can’t explain myself. The me now would explain myself. Kyle then was too afraid because of my family,” she explained. “There were often times where my hands were tied and I was just getting pummeled from the audience.”
Because Kyle was the kind of person who didn’t want to speak out against her family, she was taken advantage of during production.
“It got worse and worse and worse, so season five, I was relieved to finally have that conversation with my sister Kim about stealing the goddamn house because I didn’t want to say when that conversation first came up, ‘What do you mean I bought you out of that house because you were in a financial situation,’” she shared. “That was private information. You don’t do that to family. So I sat there having people think I stole her house.”
“In that moment, I was finally like, ‘I’ve had it. I’m tired of people not knowing. I’m tired of being the bad guy in this.’ So sometimes you have to be patient and wait for the truth to come out,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.