Kyle Richards is the last remaining OG cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hillsand season 14 looks to be one of her most challenging seasons yet.
The actor, entrepreneur and reality TV star spoke to Deadline about the new season of the Bravo series, her friendship with co-star Dorit Kemsley, the project she is working on with Reese Witherspoon, and whether she would return for a new project Halloween term.
RHOBH Season 14 opens with Richards and Kemsley not speaking to each other since filming the reunion. Their friendship turns even sourer when Kemsley reads a private text message from Richards during the reunion, wanting to patch things up. However, Kemsley views Richards’ actions as a form of manipulation, as she believes Halloween star only contacts her when the cameras are rolling.
“Well, I always look at what people accuse you of because it seems like something they would do to people. So that’s kind of how I looked at it,” Richards said Term. “I think my text that she read at the reunion was very transparent. It was actually the opposite of manipulation. I couldn’t have been more transparent in what I said to her about not wanting to ruin a friendship because of a reality show. And I think what was manipulative was that she read that on camera, a private text…’
Richards continued, “I mean, with all the cast members all these years, no one ever did that to me, and I never did that to them. So that was obviously very disturbing. And that left us in a bad spot going into the season. That was one of the things, so you’ll see us working through as much as we can this season. But then we would actually be taking one step forward and two steps back.”
After the trailer for the new season of RHOBH fell, many viewers noticed that Kemsley was more activated than previous seasons. Some have pointed to rumors that a cast shakeup took place and Kemsley tried to secure her diamond, something Richards agrees with.
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DEADLINE: There were rumors online about cast changes. Dorit was one of the names circulated online as a non-return option. Do you think the fact that she was a little more active and shooting at you in a certain way influenced that?
KYLE RICHARDS: Yes, which was very frustrating for me because I thought, “We’re friends, (which) is more than a TV show,” and that’s why I felt even more frustrated with the things that were going on camera and the text it is read and all that. It kind of made me think, “Okay, well, wow. Talking about manipulation.”
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DEADLINE: From the reunion until the cameras pick up again, Dorit reveals she’s having marital problems. Was your intention on your part wanting to talk to her or sort things out? What was your friendship like at that time?
RICHARDS: My intention from the beginning coming back to this (was) to address this immediately and hopefully get back on the same page and be able to support each other because of what we were both going through. And I just met resistance. And I thought, ‘Okay, I see what’s going on here. She doesn’t want to fix things.” So I kept trying, but it felt really hard, and I met a very different Dorit than I was used to seeing, and it didn’t feel like this was exactly what she was going through in her life. She just seemed much angrier.
DEADLINE: But what do you think was Dorit’s motivation for not trying to patch things up with you, despite your long-standing friendship?
RICHARDS: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said a minute ago, and I’m not sure if I want to repeat that, but I think that’s a big part of it. And then I think maybe she’s also angry about what’s happening in her life.
Kyle Richards and Dorit Kemsley on ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Griffin Nagel/Bravo
DEADLINE: Do you ever feel like social media conversations influence your cast members to create storylines for the show?
RICHARDS: Well, I guess that’s not the case. The reason The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been such a success is that we’ve had real issues and real problems. I think when we first started the show, people expected it to be fake and phony because it was Beverly Hills. And they quickly discovered that we have big problems just like everyone else, regardless of the size of our houses. That’s why we’ve always been one of the top shows – (it’s) that’s why and that’s how I’ve lived my life on the show, and what I say to the woman’s face in the scene, I would say off camera, and I would be consistent in my conversations with the other cast members and in my interviews, and sometimes I see being nice to my face, and then very different conversations happen with the other cast members. And I’m like, “Wait, what am I believing here?” But that causes more problems within the show.
DEADLINE: It seems like this year more than ever the other girls are targeting you. If you could get a former cast member back who would support you unconditionally, who would you like to see back?
RICHARDS: Teddi (Mellencamp). I know she would always have my back. Erika (Girardi) has always been steadfast and has never made me doubt her friendship in all the years she has been on the show. (In the past) a lot of cast members have hurt me, and then apologize and come back and do it again, so you kind of wonder, “Will the real person here please stand up?” But Teddi, “I know that it would also, like Erika, be supportive. And I can trust her.
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DEADLINE: We’re seeing some of those patterns with Sutton (Stracke). She exposes situations from your life in front of the camera, apologizes and then it happens again. How is your friendship with Sutton now?
RICHARDS: She came into this season really wanting to repair our friendship and apologized for the way she treated me last year. I really appreciated that, and I felt it was genuine, and I was grateful, because I care about her, and I just wanted us to be friends again. I need all the support I can get right now, so I was grateful for that. And then, you know, you see the trailer and you’re like, “Wait, what is she saying behind my back?” So I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait and see, like everyone else, what is said when I’m not there.
DEADLINE: Earlier this year, Reese Witherspoon shocked the Bravosphere by saying she had a project with a Real Housewives starthat you later confirmed it was you. Will we get news about this soon? Is it scripted? Unscripted?
RICHARDS: Yes, it’s an unscripted docuseries, but at this point that’s all I can say.
DEADLINE: Jamie Lee Curtis, your former Halloween co-star, hinted that she might still be up for doing another one Halloween. Would you be interested in returning?
RICHARDS: Did she say that? I would 100% do it – I would love to do that. I’m grateful I didn’t die in the last one; I’ve survived since the first one. So I would love to do something like that again with Jamie, or, you know, if my character Lindsay comes back.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 14 premieres Tuesday, November 19 at 8pm ET on Bravo.
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