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Kathy Hilton hinted at what’s “edited” on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and she addressed her sister Kyle Richards’ feud with Lisa Vanderpump. The star also revealed the “biggest misconception” about her, and she shared who called her in the middle of the reunion.
At the reunion taping, Kathy answered a phone call while her sister was on the verge of tears as she discussed her separation from husband Mauricio Umansky. In the past, Kathy has been accused of being “cuckoo” on the show, though many fans love her humor.
In an interview for Vulture, Kathy addressed her co-stars’ belief that she’s “cuckoo,” as she insisted that it’s just a joke. “I don’t consider myself stupid,” she said. “It’s the way things are cut, and that’s fine.”
“You have to realize things are edited. I know who ‘Hunky-Dory’ is. Okay?” she said, referring to her past scene with Sutton Stracke, when Kathy seemingly didn’t recognize the expression. “I’ve said it a million times: It was just to get Sutton out of her rut and her bad mood, and I thought she would laugh at me. That didn’t happen. And all the girls’ reactions at the table were funny. So that was not your question, but I want to get that across.”
Kathy then spoke to accusations that the show is “manufactured.”
“I will tell you one thing, though. I know this much: These girls are exactly the same [off camera], and they end up loving each other. They’re not phonies,” she said. “People think, Oh, things are manufactured. … [but] nobody is whispering in our ear telling us what to do or say.”
As for her sister, Kyle, Kathy shared how they’re doing, saying, “It’s actually been really good, but we don’t get to spend enough time together. It’s more fun when we’re working together.”
When asked to name the best feud in reality-TV history, Kathy answered, “Kyle and Lisa Vanderpump. Well, not the best; I don’t like that. … But when I found out that had happened, I said, ‘No, you did not walk into her house.’ She goes, ‘Yeah, I did.’ I go, ‘You’re kidding, right?’ And then that whole good-bye? It was just like, Wow. That was shocking.”
Does RHOBH now have a villain?
“We did, years ago,” said Kathy. “I think that it’s nice to have drama, but I don’t think it always has to be about a fight. We’re going through such a difficult time in this world right now, and I think people are staying home a lot more, and they want to be entertained and see pretty things. To laugh a little bit, kind of enjoy themselves.”
Kathy also addressed the claim that people are scared of her.
“That’s the biggest misconception. People are afraid of me,” she said. “For what? I mean, NBCUniversal, Bravo, Evolution, Andy Cohen — they are huge. They’re big. They’re big players. Nobody owns them and tells them what to do, and they’ve got more power than just about anyone. So the whole idea of anybody being afraid of me is actually somebody trying to sabotage me or hurt me. And there was somebody that used to be like that. And it didn’t end well.”
At one point, Kathy revealed who called her during the reunion.
“It was my birthday, and my phone was blowing up, blowing up, blowing up, blowing up,” she said. “And it was getting late, and we were supposed to drive down to the desert … So it was my husband, and it kept beeping. And without my glasses, I couldn’t [see the screen well], so I just [picked up and] was like, ‘I can’t talk.'”