Kyle Richards is seeing things more clearly than ever—including the cracks in her marriage.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star opened up about her sobriety journey on the Bravo series' Nov. 15 episode. During a lunch date with Dorit Kemsley in Las Vegas, Kyle's BFF attempted to understand her motivation for giving up alcohol and starting a health and fitness transformation.
"Do you think this whole not drinking and distancing yourself for a minute was to try to protect yourself get control?" Dorit asked, referencing Kyle's explosive season 12 blowout with Kathy Hilton. "Because obviously you have the trauma of falling out with your sister. That's traumatic."
Kyle replied, "I'm not a psychologist, but maybe so. I feel like I need to be really clear right now with everything."
However, when Dorit noted she misses enjoying cocktails and letting loose with her costar on vacation like they've done in so many past seasons of the show, the Halloween Ends actress insisted her newfound sobriety isn't just a phase.
"Before I would have felt like, 'Well I have to go have drinks because everyone expects that from me to go and have fun,'" the 54-year-old explained. "I don't feel like I need to do that anymore. This is who I am, just take it or leave it."
The conversation then turned to Kyle's ongoing marriage troubles with husband of 27 years Mauricio Umansky. As for the cause of the couple's recent divide?
"I think a lot of it has to do with I expected more from him for what I was going through," Kyle admitted of her family drama after last season. "Also, probably, you know how he loves to go drink. There's a lot of business events where I'm supposed to go and be the wife and be supportive. Sometimes it's like I don't want to go to these parties."
In a confessional, the Bravo star reiterated how her new alcohol-free lifestyle really affected her relationship with the real estate mogul.
"Mo is in sales, and a big part of that is putting yourself out there and be social," she noted, "and I'm at a place in my life where I don't want to do that. I would much rather be home reading than going to an event, especially when I don't drink anymore."
The admission forced Dorit to ask some tough but necessary questions.
"But if this is the direction you want to go, do you ever worry about the future?" she inquired of Kyle. "How do you sustain a marriage?"
This caused Kyle to cry before addressing the cold, hard truth about the state of her and Mauricio's relationship.
"I think with the way my relationship is right now, I'm not happy," she admitted in a confessional. "I'm sort of now working on myself inside and I feel like he's very focused on his work. So, I feel like in that aspect we're kind of growing in different directions. I don't want to wake up a few years down the road and be like, 'Who are you? What are we supposed to talk about now?'"
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
Keep reading to relive the timeline of Kyle and Mauricio's split.
July 3
It was the bombshell that rocked the Bravo world when it was reported that The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards and her husband Mauricio Umanksy had split after 27 years of marriage.
But fans didn't have to wait until the RHOBH premiere to get a status update on the couple, who are parents to daughters Farrah, 34, Alexia, 27, Sophia, 23 and Portia, 15.
"Any claims regarding us divorcing are untrue," the pair said in a joint statement shared to Instagram on July 4. "However, yes, we have had a rough year, the most challenging one of our marriage. But we both love and respect each other tremendously. There has been no wrongdoing on anyone's part."
The pair then asked "to be able to work through our issues privately" despite their reality TV history.
"While it may be entertaining to speculate," they wrote, "please do not create false stories to fit a further salacious narrative."
July 8
But soon after Kyle and Mauricio issued their joint statement, fans, did, indeed begin to speculate about Kyle's friendship with Morgan Wade, noting the country singer's prominence in the Halloween Ends star's Instagram posts since their April 2022 meeting.
Kyle addressed the rumors head-on when asked by photographers about her connection to Morgan.
“We are very good friends,” she told told paparazzi in West Hollywood, Calif.
And, when asked if her relationship with the 28-year-old was “just a rumor,” she responded bluntly with a “yes.”
As for their matching tattoos, Kyle noted she also has coordinating body art with bestie Teddi Mellencamp.
July 11
Amid ongoing rumors about their relationship, Kyle posted a slew of pictures from a family vacation to Aspen, including a group shot of herself, Mauricio and their four daughters. And she was ready to clap back at one suspicious commenter.
After one user wrote, "We love 'damage control' Kyle," the 54-year-old responded, "If y'all like to read into every little crumb, read into this [middle finger emoji]."
August 10
Days after setting the record straight about their friendship, Morgan dropped the music video for her single "Fall in Love With Me," which starred Kyle as her love interest and featured the two women striking up a steamy romance.
In an joint Instagram video, the pair shared the backstory for their sexy collaboration.
"I've done several music videos and every time there's someone in it they always assume we're dating or something's going on," Morgan explained. "If you go on the Internet, you'll see people are obsessed with us being friends.
"In response, Kyle joked back, "Excuse me, they want to know why I'm friends with you."
While Morgan noted, "We thought it would kind of be a good idea to kind of poke fun at that and troll the trolls a little bit," Kyle admitted, "Well, if they're gonna talk, you might as well give them something to talk about."
One person who liked the video was Mauricio, whp commented three fire emojis on Morgan and Kyle's joint post about the project, adding, "So good."
August 21
The couple and their children went on a family trip to Italy, both sharing snaps from their getaway.
Mauricio posted a August 20 snap of the entire family at night aboard a boat, which he captioned, "Summer Vacay 2023 on point," while Kyle uploaded a sweet snap with her daughters. The Halloween Kills star captioned the post, "That's amore," alongside red hearts and the Italian flag emoji,
August 31
Despite their seemingly hunky-dory Italian getaway, Kyle shared that she had been "dealing with a lot of stuff lately" while answering fan queries during an Amazon Live session.
"That's a very loaded question," Kyle responded after a fan asked about her and Mauricio's relationship. "You know, this has been very hard to do [because it's] playing out with so many people having eyes on us and being in the public eye, but obviously we care about each other a lot."
September 25
Kyle was quick to clarify chatter surrounding the "fun girls' trip" she went on to Paris with Morgan and one of her childhood friends during another Amazon Live discussion.
“I mean, there’s just so many things out there online," Kyle said. "I’m like, 'Why do people just make things up, invent things about the trip?'"
Kyle explained that the pair went abroad to capture footage for an upcoming documentary about Morgan, which the Bravolebrity is producing.
"They see that there’s a camera there, and they completely ignore that there’s a camera there, act like we were just like – I don’t even know what,” she continued.
Kyle then emphasized that “there were cameras there,” squashing rumors that they were on a romantic getaway.
"Can you guys get your act together?” she stressed. “But yes, it was a great shoot.”
September 26
When Mauricio made his debut on Dancing With the Stars, Kyle was in the ballroom to support him and his partner Emma Slater as they performed a jive.
And Kyle took her support a quick-step further, detailing how to vote for Mauricio on her Instagram Story.
After the DWTS premiere, Mauricio offered a status update on their marriage.
"We were dealing with our own things, kind of, super quietly and internally, just our own issues," he explained on the Sept. 28 episode of The Agency's Red Mic podcast. "I mean, certainly, we're not separated. We're not divorced at this point. We are not any of that stuff. We're still dealing with our marriage."
The 53-year-old noted he's grateful they went nearly three decades without ever encountering marriage troubles.
"It's been an amazing 26 years and it's been a difficult one year," he said. "Kyle and I are blessed, where we actually had 26 years that we did not have a bad year, and I know most marriages have bad months, bad weeks, bad years."
Mauricio then addressed rumors that he and Kyle staged their separation to garner publicity.
"I am not going to destroy my life to put a plant in the news so people can get more entertainment," he stated, insisting that he's "not that smart or that conniving."
October 3
In the season 13 trailer for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it's confirmed that Morgan got a "K" tattoo, which Kyle inked ontoher body. In one scene, Kyle introduced Morgan to a tattoo artist, with Morgan joking that they met because, “She stalked me.”
And, like the public, Kyle's co-stars had questions about her friendship with the singer.
"You put the first letter of your name on her body?" Dorit Kemsley asked her longtime friend in reference to the tattoo. "What is going on, Kyle?"
But it was a tense conversation between Kyle and Mauricio that really had the Internet buzzing as the couple seemed to joke about the infidelity rumors surrounding them, with the real estate mogul telling his wife, "I'm just glad it's you out there having an affair." Kyle then quipped back, "For once it's me."
October 25
Just days after dedicating a DWTS performance to his wife, who he called his "rock," Mauricio was photographed holding hands with his partner Emma, sparking rumors of a romance off the dance floor.
Kyle admitted she was "taken aback" by the photos on Watch What Happens Live. "That was very hard to see," she told Andy Cohen. "It hurt my feelings."
While she couldn't confirm if there really is a budding romance between the pair, she did share her perspective on the pairing.
"I don't know if anything has happened yet," she noted, "But obviously there's something there and listen, I love him very much—and we are amicable—but that really did hurt me."
So much so, that she admitted she deleted a recent Instagram post in support of their run on DWTS.
However, she added, "I also voted for them."
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