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Kyle Richards spoke of being the longest-running housewife in the Real Housewives history on Friday.
As she also admitted to wanting to quit The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, dished on the hardest part of the series, and offered updates on where she stands with Dorit Kemsley, 49, and Mauricio Umansky, 55, Kyle confirmed if she and Mauricio have discussed a divorce and gave an update on her sobriety.
“I never thought I’d be here 15 years for sure,” Kyle, 56, told USA TODAY on December 5. “If I’m going to have a title, I guess that’s a good one to have.”
Although Kyle keeps coming back for more, she admitted to quitting “in [her] mind so many times.”
“Now I just roll with it and see what happens,” she noted.
Especially after season 14, which saw the fallout from her separation from Mauricio, Kyle dabbled with the idea of calling it quits. However, she ultimately decided she was too “afraid of change.”
“When this has been such a big part of your life for 15 years, and you’re close with not only the cast … but the crew, the producers who become family, and just your everyday in and out. It would’ve been a very big change and another loss,” she reasoned. “I felt like I had already gone through loss in the last few years, so I was nervous about that.”
“[Plus], we [have] a lot of fun,” she added. “I think you do see that, but sometimes when there’s so much drama, I feel like that gets overshadowed.”
Looking back at her decision to be a part of the Bravo show, Kyle admitted she had no idea what she was getting into.
“That can’t be too difficult,” she thought at the time.
“I started watching the other shows to see what I was getting myself into, but I thought, ‘Well, that’s them. I’m not going to be arguing with anybody.’ And that one out the window real fast,” she noted.
During one particular moment from season one, which saw the cast travel to New York, Kyle said they all “wanted to leave.”
“None of us were used to this,” she explained. “That was the difference between being with that cast and now. We were all on this together as season one people, so we were learning as we went along, and when it got really intense – and it really did, and it was all very authentic – we were just like, ‘I can’t do this.'”
Season one also featured a blowout argument with her sister, Kim Richards, 61.
“Arguments with my sisters over these 15 years, that’s absolutely the most difficult thing I’ve gone through,” Kyle noted. “[It’s] hard to have personal family stuff play out in front of the cameras and then have millions of people watching, weighing in, taking sides, thinking they know things they don’t know or all of it.”
Another moment that stands out in Kyle’s memory is the RHOBH cast’s season five trip to Amsterdam, which climaxed with a fight between Kim and Lisa Rinna, 62.
“Amsterdam was one of those moments where we all said we all want to go home,” she revealed. “After that infamous dinner, we all sat around, for those of us that were speaking to each other, and said, ‘We just want to go home. It’s too much.'”
As for season 15, Kyle signaled a “disappointing” cast trip in which she and Dorit had words.
“It set us way back. So unfortunately, we’re going to have to work through that once again, which we had made progress and now we’re worse off than ever,” she admitted. “So it was upsetting because we’re the ones that have been there the longest and the closest, and I really did not want or expect anything like that to ever happen.”
“There’s always a way back” to the friendship, but “it’s just timing,” she explained.
Regarding her current status with Mauricio, Kyle confirmed they still “get along very well” and shared that they have yet to talk about divorce.
“We always have [gotten along]. Fighting was not an issue in our marriage. It probably would’ve been better if we did fight sometimes, to be honest,” Kyle said. “We like each other and we respect each other. We want the best for each other. We’re doing great with coparenting. I don’t know how we’re able to do this, but I’m very grateful.”
“[Divorce] literally has not come up. We separated and we’re living our lives separately. I’m not just saying that – we literally have not had that (divorce) conversation, which is very confusing to a lot of people, but I think it’s because we’re navigating through this really well,” she continued. “And we’re like, OK – and obviously you’ve been with someone that many years and we have businesses and properties and we’re getting along – well there’s been nothing to push either one of us to do that, so who knows.”
In another interview, Kyle spoke of her sobriety after Dorit questioned her for drinking what appeared to be champagne, but was actually a non-alcoholic option.
“I still have not had any alcohol now for three years and five months,” Kyle told Us Weekly on December 4.
She then said that when it comes to Dorit, she’s “not open-minded to listening.”
“And when she has something in her head, that’s it,” Kyle explained. “It’s really frustrating to try to have a conversation with her.”
“We tried to fix things, and it was like two steps forward, three steps back. I would love to say we’re in a better place now, but it got worse [amid season 15], and things came to blows in Italy when Erika was part of that, too. That part’s been hard,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.