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Kyle Richards on the Reality of Separation From Mauricio Umansky and 'Not Hiding' It on 'RHOBH'
Kyle Richards promises The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills viewers she's being "open and honest" about her life on season 13, despite all the chatter online... and from her castmates.
"I'm not hiding anything from anybody," Kyle, 55, tells ET. "I'm working through things myself, and I'm going through something, and I want to be able to be as open as I possibly can, and I will be -- when I figure it all out."
"Open and honest" are words Kyle's pulled out often over the course of her 13-season run on the Bravo hit, but almost always directed at others. This year, she's heeding her own advice as she navigates an unexpected separation from her husband of 28 years, real estate boss Mauricio Umanksy, 53. The two confirmed their marital troubles last summer, after reports of a divorce surfaced online. As of today, they've yet to decide whether the d-word is where their love story ends.
"[Divorce] would be when we can no longer do what we're doing right now," Kyle offers, explaining the estranged couple's current situation. They live under the same roof still, at their Encino, California, estate, alongside their daughters Alexia, 27, Sophia, 24, and Portia, 15. Kyle is also mom to Farrah Brittany, 35, whom she shares with ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie. Three of the four (Farrah, Alexia and Sophia) work with Mauricio at his firm, The Agency, and star together on Netflix's Buying Beverly Hills; the whole crew's taken a handful of family trips in the months since the news broke.
"We were never fighters, we're not a toxic couple, so we've been able to manage that so far," Kyle says. "It's gonna go one way or the other, you know? We're either going to wake up and be like, 'Oh my gosh! We could actually fix this,' or it's going to be divorce. I mean, I just don't know how sustainable living under same roof as friends and as a family can last. I don't know how that can last."
After projecting a fairy-tale romance onto TV screens for more than a decade, viewers were caught off guard when the separation hit last year. Kyle maintains she and Maurico had a great marriage; it was only this last year when things took a turn. As far as Kyle's shared, there wasn't some big incident that pushed her and Mauricio to separate, but she does reference a "turning point where the straw broke the camel's back." That undisclosed event drove her "to call it" and ask for a separation.
"I was always very proud of the fact that we were able to grow together in all the years of our marriage," she reflects, "and I think it got to a point where he was so busy, and I'm working and we weren't necessarily growing together, and I think that's when the problems that we had sort of put on the back-burner started to bubble up again."
A catalyst for what's proven to be a season of change for Kyle -- she's been sober for more than a year and put a real focus on her health and fitness -- was the death of her childhood friend, Lorene Shea, who died by suicide in 2022.
"I hate to say it like this, 'cause it sounds so almost selfish, but really just working on myself," she says of what's bringing her happiness these days. "Working on myself is taking care of myself physically, emotionally and really digging very deep and learning a lot about myself, and with that means where I go, where I spend my time, who I spend it with and in that, I'm finding joy -- and it doesn't look like it used to."
"Sounds like such a cliché when you lose someone to say, 'Oh, it really put things into perspective...' but Lorene was the person that was most like me," she says, "and I think in losing her and seeing her go through this, I really did think, well, we're only here so long and what is important to you? And who do you want to spend time with? And you want to feel valued, and each day is precious."
Kyle hosted an event in partnership with the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) in honor of Lorene this season on Housewives, during which she opened up about needing to feel valued by the people in her life. Viewers interpreted that as a shot at Mauricio, who missed the charity night due to work obligations. Kyle's since defended his absence as simply a scheduling issue, but the sentiment remains.
"Yes, I did go through phases where I thought, why is our relationship not as important as work? -- which I'm sure many women feel that -- and I know he has a very important job, and not just with his work, but he has a big family to take care of and support, so it's not like it's all on him or all on me, you know?" she says. "I'm just careful about how I word it and what I say, because I do care about him so much and have a tremendous amount of respect for him and what we built, and I don't want to damage that by talking about it negatively."
That's part of the reason why Kyle was not ready to shout her personal struggles from the rooftops, or rather, into the mic pack she wears for filming.
"You know, we had not shared with our daughters yet what was really going on, so it felt strange to put that on television before sharing that with them," she notes, "but I didn't have a say in when the season started."
As cameras went up, producers seemed to catch on to there being more to the story than Kyle was initially letting on.
"There were a couple of scenes where the producers said to me after, 'Um... wow. OK....' and, I don't have a good poker face, so I later said to Mau, 'I feel like that scene was uncomfortable...' and he was kinda like, 'What do you mean?'"
It was those producer debriefs that resulted in Kyle ultimately opting to let cameras follow what was happening at home, including picking filming back up after the season wrapped to document the separation going public. While she wasn't necessarily hiding it -- she did inform the women during a retreat featured in the premiere that she and Mauricio were going through something -- she wasn't sure she wanted to expose all this to the world just yet.
"I'm very open about myself, so it was difficult -- and Mau was not on the same page about wanting to be open about that, which is understandable," she says.
The personal stress aside, Kyle says the most difficult part of sharing this all so publicly has been the outcry from strangers who send her DMs like, "Love is dead." It's a conversation viewers will see her have on-camera with Erika Jayne, who's gone through her own highly publicized and criticized split, before season's end.
"I'm learning that now, that we are a success story," she says. "We're married 28 years now, and 27 of them were great and I feel like I'm very proud of the family that we've built and we really helped each other grow, you know? We've been with each other since we were in our 20s, and we are very different people now than we were then, but we were exactly where we were supposed to be."
Under their current agreement, the two are "free to do what we want," which includes dating outside the marriage. Kyle doesn't go into specifics on who may have done what so far, but she makes it clear she is not dating 29-year-old country singer Morgan Wade, amid continued speculation.
"She plays a very important role in my life, as do a lot of my friends," Kyle says of their relationship. "Everyone is so focused on Morgan. I've seen my other friends getting edited out of photos, they're just snipped right out, tossed to the side, you know? There's been very much people wanting to create this narrative, and I saw one story once that said we were walking on the beach and I was like, what? I've never been on the beach with her. It was a photo of me alone and another photo of her by a car, but that was the clickbait."
In the early days of all the questions surrounding them, Morgan and Kyle played into the gossip fodder by playing love interests in a music video for Morgan's single, "Fall in Love With Me." It only sparked more stories about the two, which Kyle says she's become "desensitized to," as most of the time, there's no real story there. For instance, Morgan's choice to clear her Instagram of any photos of Kyle (also removing them from Kyle's page, as they were "collaborators" on most of their shared pics) was simply to usher in her next music era, not some subtle hint at a split.
"There was a little bit of time where it did change our friendship, because this is not something that Morgan had ever been exposed to, this sort of scrutiny and being under a microscope," Kyle reveals. "It's just too much for her, so I felt bad about that, because as a friend you're like, oh my gosh. I feel responsible that this is affecting you this way, because this is not something she wants in her life at all."
Part of the reason why Kyle and Morgan have spent so much time together over the last year is because Kyle is producing a documentary about Morgan, centered around her decision to undergo a double mastectomy in the fall after genetic testing found her susceptible to breast cancer. It's why they were in Paris together, which spawned a series of "City of Love" headlines.
"When you look at Morgan and me on the outside, we look like you know couldn't be more different, but we are very much alike, our personalities and bonding over common interest and all of that," Kyle shares. Morgan is also sober and a fitness lover.
"When she found out that she carried this gene, and, you know, I lost my mom to breast cancer, we started talking more about that," she continues, "and I really thought, I really want to follow a story like this, of someone who is this age, going through something like this while she's touring on the road, living on a bus with her band members and a lot about the personal stuff they would see in the documentary."
As they filmed, though, Kyle says the story evolved, with Morgan becoming a tabloid fixture thanks to her proximity to Kyle. What was going to be a feature film now appears set to release as a series, though Kyle can't share where yet. In the meantime, there's more of Kyle's story to unfold as The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills wraps up season 13.
"I think the biggest misconception, something I read out there is that 'she's done this stuff for ratings,'" Kyle says. "I mean, you think I could get my husband and children to sign on for this story? I mean, that's just crazy to me, and even the stuff with Morgan-- you know, I'm a real person and my life happens to be in front of the cameras, and it's been a very difficult time, so this is not something that I would like to have attention about at all. I would like to be able to deal with all of this privately while I figure things out for myself but I'm, you know, I don't have that luxury because of what I've signed up to do and being in the public eye."
The season likely won't wrap things up in a bow for Kyle and Mau, though she says she's "definitely seen growth" in her husband as he's been able to watch back their scenes on TV.
"Also, being in therapy together and separate has been very important for both of us," she adds, but says explaining what she still needs to see from Mauricio in order to decide to stay together "is a very big question ... I don't know if I can answer..."
"I just hope that no matter what, that we always have love and respect for each other," she says.
Why Kyle Richards May Really Be Ready to Exit 'RHOBH' After 'Difficult' Season 13 and Reunion
Diamonds get a little heavy to hold after a while… like, say, 13 years.
"It was not easy shooting this season, and it's certainly not easy watching it all back and having to relive it all again,' OG The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards confesses to ET ahead of season 13's finale next week.
"I'm just sort of waiting for it to be over, to be honest," she admits. "I feel like I've gotten through, like, the hardest parts, but then I have a little break… and then more difficult stuff comes up."
Over the next two weeks, viewers will see more of that difficult stuff, as Kyle opens up about her marital troubles in-depth, including a tear-filled conversation with her estranged husband, Mauricio Umansky, and their four daughters (Farrah, Alexia, Sophia and Portia) about Kyle and Mau's decision to separate. Then comes reunion, taped a few weeks ago, with Kyle in the hot seat to fill in the gaps of her story, as much as she's willing to share. She says there are still factors to figure out in her personal life, things she doesn’t have the answers to quite yet, and therefore can't reveal everything.
"I was honest you know with everybody, I just didn't want to go into details on camera, which I was still working out the details in my head — and with my therapist," she offers.
Kyle's no stranger to public scrutiny, but season 13 felt different, with her most personal story yet — the possible end of her marriage — unfolding in real time as cameras rolled. In fact, cameras went back up after filming ended to capture more of her and Mau's process as the news of their split went public.
"This season, when I was struggling so much personally and I felt like people were coming at me when I really just needed friends and support, I really thought, how can I continue to do this?" she says. "Why would I put myself through this? I was already struggling so much in my personal life, why would I want to be tortured in front of the cameras, and then have to relive this again in six months? But, obviously, one day the time will come where I say enough is enough."
Kyle's one of the longest-serving Housewives in Bravo history, and one of two OGs (New Jersey's Teresa Giudice being the other) left standing. With longterm 'Wives (for instance, Kandi Burruss after 14 seasons on Atlanta) now opting out of the reality TV experience, Kyle seems to think she's not far behind.
"Every year it's like, should I? Should I?" she says. "I remember years ago saying, after season 5, I'm not doing any more. Here I am. But, you know, right now it doesn't sound so great. But I hate to even say that because who knows what I'm going to feel like in a month or two? I don't know."
"Every season, like, do you leave on a high note, or was your season so bad you don’t ever want to come back again?" she laughs. "I don’t know. I don’t have that answer."
Kyle says she’s not sure what’s next for her story, but she’ll be sticking around Los Angeles for a few more years at least, quelling concern she was abandoning the city she’s infamously called out in her taglines over the year.
"Oh yeah, that was another headline: 'Kyle's leaving California!'" she cracks, referencing the stories that popped up online after sharing her desire to lead a simpler life, possibly in her beloved Aspen, Colorado, on a recent episode of RHOBH.
"Portia will be 16 on March 1," she notes. "I can’t go anywhere until she’s done with high school, and then I will reevaluate everything and see where I'm at, but for me, to be living somewhere away from paparazzi and the spotlight, obviously, I have to make some life changes, but that’s when I’m most at peace."
"Even before the issues with Mauricio and me, we had talked about moving out of California," she adds. "Everybody has to be on the same page, though. I mean, I'm not going unless all four daughters come with me! But, as they get older, I realize maybe that wouldn't necessarily happen. So I don't know, we'll see. … Maybe it’s not Aspen, maybe it’s somewhere else."
"I'm at a point in my life where I don't really know what's next," she reiterates. "I'm open to many things."
The same could be said for Beverly Hills. The season's hit a high with ratings, but received mixed feedback from fans, as the cycle goes, with some calling for a cast shakeup. Season 13 was itself a bit of a shakeup after the departure of longtime breakout star Lisa Rinna, divisive season 12 addition Diana Jenkins and fan-favorite "friend of" Kathy Hilton, Kyle’s older sister. Only six ‘Wives returned -- Kyle, Erika Jayne, Dorit Kemsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Sutton Stracke and Crystal Kung Minkoff -- joined by a seventh, Annemarie Wiley, midway through filming. Brought in by Kyle, Annemarie had a rough entry into the group, receiving an even rougher response from the audience.
"I don't think there is a shakeup that needs to happen," Kyle cautions. "I know that there was a lot of talk about Annemarie, but I think people, you need to get to know someone better and she was thrown in the middle of a season and with difficult circumstances; she's never been in a situation like this. It can be very jarring, very deer-in-the-headlights situation So, I don't know... I think that we have a great cast, you know? The seasons depend on what's going on in people's lives. So, I don't know, I think, no matter what, it's going to be a very different season next year.”
Season 13 feels a little like a rebuilding year after a tough few seasons centered around Erika’s life, tangled in a web of legal troubles thanks to her estranged husband, disgraced attorney Tom Girardi. The focus returned to the group dynamics this year, which changed for Kyle after season 12’s emotionally charged reunion. Her one-time closest friend on the cast, Dorit, didn't back her up in the way she needed to when forced to discuss Kathy’s alleged off-camera bad behavior on a cast trip to Aspen. That created division, compounded by Kyle investing in other friendships, which, she's noted, better align with current lifestyle choices (she's been sober for more than a year). Then, this season, Kyle felt a slight bit of betrayal when Dorit broached the subject of her home life repeatedly on camera.
"I didn't love being asked about things about my marriage from her, because we're closer, with the camera that's this close to my face in my car driving," she explains, referencing an awkward conversation between them from early in the season, during which Dorit encouraged Kyle to open up to her more.
"I understand that we signed up for this job, but I can only say that so many times," she continues. "Just watching the season, and some of the things that are said in the interviews, set me back sometimes, because I'm thinking to myself, I'm already struggling so much. If you're my friend, don't make it more complicated for me."
It's all unpacked at the season 13 reunion.
"Leading up to that day, if I heard one more person say, 'This is going to be your most difficult reunion ever…' I thought I was going to scream, and I did know that," Kyle says. "Although I was like, 'Well, season 5 was pretty brutal…' you know, seeing that split screen with my sister, Kim, and me, I will never forget. But, I did leave there feeling better than I went into it."
"After last season, that was my goal," she adds. "I want to leave here feeling better about things than I do going into it. And I got to say my piece to everybody, and I got to answer a lot of questions."
Ahead of the taping, Erika asked Housewives executive producer/reunion moderator Andy Cohen on his show, Watch What Happens Live, to "eviscerate" Kyle and the other women at reunion.
"There was also a lot of talk about that, but I love Erika and I know that she wants the best for me," Kyle says. "I wasn't offended by that. I was a little hurt at first, to be honest, ‘cause I was like, what is this? But she did give me a heads up and, for me, it was her saying, 'I was just dragged last year, let's treat us all fairly.'"
"I knew that she did not want to see me hurt," she says. "I always know that about Erika."
It seems Andy delivered on Erika’s request, to an extent. He previously told ET that he wasn’t interested in "eviscerating" anyone, but he did want answers about a number of topics.
"Andy asked me a lot of difficult questions, and I'm in a place in my life where I really, I don't care," Kyle shares. "I answered as honestly— not as honestly as I could, I answered very honestly, and some of the things I think about I'm like, I’m really surprised I said that. Wow. I wouldn’t— I mean, Kyle two years ago never would've said or answered these things."
Kyle says she absolutely got what she needed out of reunion day, but can't say the same for others.
"A couple people left some things unsaid," she teases, "and you'll have to see why and what happened."
Kathy returns to the reunion stage for a surprise segment, said to close the loop on season 12's lingering issues, much of which she and Kyle resolved off-camera.
"She's just been so supportive through everything I'm going through," Kyle says of Kathy, "and really made a point to say, 'I'm here for you, I love you, you're my baby sister — whatever you need, you know I've got you,' so having her be there in what was supposed to be my most difficult season ever gave me some security."
As for whether Kathy’s cameo signals a return for season 14, Kyle’s unsure. Fans have yet to get a much-desired season featuring all three sisters — Kyle, Kim and Kathy — as cast members. Housewives initially started as a potential vehicle for the siblings, before morphing into what it became.
"Everybody wants to see the three sisters," Kyle muses. "It’s so funny because they've seen us fight so much, but they really love the three sisters together. Of course, when the show that was originally going to happen with Kathy, Kim and Kyle, way before the Housewives, nobody really knew the dynamic of our relationship. So now it's like, OK, now people want to see for another reason."
"But we are all in a good place right now, so that makes me happy," she adds. "[Fighting with my sisters] is something I just do not need on my plate right now, so that makes me feel very grateful."
While she figures out what life looks like from here, Kyle's continuing to focus on herself. What she once viewed as selfish behavior is actually what she needs in her evolution.
"I was definitely a people pleaser," she reflects. "I just didn't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be a people pleaser. I don't want my daughters to be people pleasers. I want them to do what makes them happy and stand up for themselves and be strong women and, you know, be their biggest advocate, and why should I be any different?"
Longtime supporters shouldn't worry about Kyle changing too much, though.
"Oh, I could do a split even if I'm not drinking," she quips. "The reason I do the splits — I just want to clear that up right now — it’s because, if I don't use it, I’ll lose it. So it's not that I’m trying to show off, or you haven't seen it before. I know you've seen the splits, OK? But if I don't use it, I'm gonna lose it. So there you go. You're gonna see them until I can't do them anymore, how's that?"