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Kyle Richards is the last-standing OG cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Season 14 looks to be one of her most challenging seasons yet.
The actor, entrepreneur, and reality TV star talked to Deadline about the new season of the Bravo series, her friendship with co-star Dorit Kemsley, the project she’s working on with Reese Witherspoon, and if she would return for another Halloween installment.
RHOBH Season 14 starts with Richards and Kemsley not on speaking terms since filming the reunion. Their friendship turns even more sour when Kemsley reads a private text message from Richards at the reunion, wanting to patch things up. However, Kemsley deems Richards’ actions a form of manipulation as she believes the Halloween star only reaches out to her when cameras are rolling.
“Well, I always look at what people accuse you of, because it seems to be something that they would do to people. So that’s sort of how I looked at it,” Richards told Deadline. “I think that my text that she read at the reunion was very transparent. It was actually the complete opposite of a manipulation. I could not have been more transparent in what I said to her about not wanting to ruin a friendship over a reality show. And I think that was what was manipulative, was her reading that on camera, a private text…”
Richards continued, “I mean, with any of the cast members all these years, no one’s ever done that to me, and I’ve never done that to them. So that was obviously very upsetting. And we came into the season in a bad place because of that. That was one of the things, so you’ll see us work through all that as much as we could through the season. But then we would kind of take one step forward, two steps back.”
After the trailer for the new season of RHOBH dropped, many viewers noticed that Kemsley was more activated than prior seasons. Some have pointed to rumors that a cast shakeup was happening and Kemsley was trying to secure her diamond, something Richards agrees with.
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DEADLINE: There were rumors online over cast changes. Dorit was one of the names floated online as a possibility of not returning. Do you think that her being a little bit more activated and kind of gunning for you, in a way, was influenced by that?
KYLE RICHARDS: Yes, which was very frustrating to me, because I’m thinking, “We’re friends, [which] is more than a TV show”, and which is why I felt even more frustrated by the stuff that was going on on camera and the text being read and all of that. It kind of made me think, “Okay, well, wow. Talk about a manipulation.”
DEADLINE: From the reunion up until when cameras pick up again, Dorit reveals she’s going through marital issues. Was there any intention from your end that you wanted to talk or patch things up with her? How was your friendship during that time?
RICHARDS: My intention from the get-go coming back into 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 was just met with resistance. And I thought, “Okay, well, I see what’s going on here. She does not want to repair things.” So I kept trying, but it felt very difficult, and I was met with a very different Dorit that I was used to seeing, and it didn’t feel like it was just what she was going through in her life. She just seemed a lot more angry.
DEADLINE: But what do you think Dorit’s motivation was to not try to mend things with you despite your long-standing friendship?
RICHARDS: Well, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head with what you said a minute ago, which I’m not sure if I want to repeat that, but I think that’s a big part of it. And then I think she’s also maybe angry with what’s going on in her life.
DEADLINE: Do you ever feel like social media conversations influence your cast members to create storylines for the show?
RICHARDS: Well, I’d like to think 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 soon learned that we have real big problems like anybody else, regardless of the size of our homes. That’s why we’ve always been one of the top shows – [it’s] because of that and that’s how I have lived my life on the show, and what I say to the women’s face in scene, I’d say off camera, and I would be consistent in my conversations with the other cast members and in my interviews, and sometimes I do see being nice to my face, and then very different conversations happening with the other cast members. And I’m like, “Wait, what do I believe here?” But then that perpetuates more problems within the show.
DEADLINE: It seems this year, more than ever, the other girls are gunning for you. If you could have a former cast member back who has your back unconditionally, who would you like to see return?
RICHARDS: Teddi [Mellencamp]. I know that she would always have my back. Erika [Girardi] has always been steadfast and never made me question her friendship, ever, in all of the years she has been on the show. [In the past], a lot of the cast members have hurt me, and then apologize and come back and do it again, so you’re kind of left wondering, “Will the real person please stand up here?”, but Teddi, I know would also be, like Erika, be supportive. And I can trust her.
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DEADLINE: We see some of those patterns with Sutton [Stracke]. She’ll expose situations of your life on camera, then apologize, and then it happens again. What is your friendship with Sutton like now?
RICHARDS: She came into this season, very much wanting to repair our friendship and apologizing for how 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’m just going to have to wait and see like everyone else what is being said when I’m not around.
DEADLINE: Earlier this year, Reese Witherspoon shocked the Bravosphere by saying that she had a project with a Real Housewives star, which you later confirmed was you. Will we be getting any news about this soon? Is it scripted? Unscripted?
RICHARDS: Yes, it’s an unscripted docu-series, but right now, 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 Halloween. Would you be interested in returning?
RICHARDS: She said that? I would 100% — I would love to do that. I’m grateful that I wasn’t killed off in the last one — since the original one, I’ve survived. So I would love to be back doing something like that with Jamie, or, you know, having my character Lindsay be back.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 14 premieres Tuesday, November 19 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
