Kyle Richards on Why Sister Kim Richards Won't Appear on RHOBH for First Time in 8 Seasons
Kim Richards won’t be appearing on this season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for the first time in its seven year history, and her sister Kyle Richards told PEOPLE why.
On Friday, Kyle joined fellow Beverly Hills Housewives Lisa Vanderpump, Lisa Rinna, Dorit Kemsley, Erika Girardi, Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave and Friend of the Housewives Camille Grammer Friday at the RHOBH Season 8 premiere party at the Doheny Room in West Hollywood, California.
While at the event, she revealed that Kim — whose battle with addictions and recovery played out on the hit Bravo show — was doing well, but was busy living her life and spending time with her 1-year-old grandson, Hucksley.
“She’s with her grandchild almost every day,” Kyle said, adding that her sister’s sobriety was going well. “I see her with him and I’m like, ‘Okay you’re good. You’re so happy.’ ”
“There were a few times I asked her to film with me, but she didn’t want to,” Kyle added. “I miss my sister Kim being on the show. It feels weird to do the show without my sister, honestly. I’m a creature of habit! I don’t like change.”
Kyle and Kim have been on the show every season since its premiere in 2010 — Kim as a Housewife (for five seasons) and then as a guest of the Housewives (for the past two seasons).
They’ve had their fair share of arguments together, including and explosive battle on the season 1 finale in which Kyle accused Kim of being “an alcoholic.”
Last season, Kim’s sobriety came into question when Rinna suggested she was “mostly sober” and on the verge of relapsing. The situation was allegedly so bad, Rinna said then, that Kyle feared Kim will die from substance abuse. “That’s what Kyle’s afraid of,” she said. “She’s afraid to turn her back on her sister because of that. She’s afraid she’s going to die. I know it, you know it. To me, this is what’s going to happen next. They’re this close to Kim dying.”
The claims turned out to be false, with Rinna apologizing at the RHOBH reunion (though Kim, famously, didn’t appear to accept it).
While Kim won’t be there, Kyle still promises “a lot of drama, a lot of style, a lot of glamour, a lot of traveling and a lot of fighting” for Season 8.
“I don’t think anybody came out unscathed this season,” she said. “Unfortunately, things happen and if you’re going to be honest about it, it’s going to come out. Then the other women chime in and the next thing you know it’s a full-blown problem.”
That drama means a little bit of a bump in the road for Kyle and BFF Vanderpump. Though they’re “good” right now, Kyle admits she worries they’ll hit some tough waters when the show begins airing.
“We have rough patches throughout the season. It’s hard… You think, ‘Okay, We’re good now. We talk through it, but then the show’s going to air and then it could make it all bad again,’ ” Kyle said. “So you really have to fight hard to keep your friendship strong, and you know reality television. But we do. We make a point to make each other a priority, our relationship is very important to us, so we’re like okay, we can not let this happen to us. We can get through this.”
Vanderpump agreed, though felt confident she and Kyle’s friendship will survive.
“Sometimes when you say things, even though you’re really feeling them, it does ignite a little bit of a situation,” the restauranteur admitted. “”We really do and we disagree. It took a while to get there and it took a little while to come back from it, but you know there’s a love between the two of us that is very difficult to supersede.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premieres Tuesday (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
