Kyle Richards is hopeful that she and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills costar Dorit Kemsley can repair their friendship.
“I think that if you’ve ever cared about somebody that much, I think there’s always room for repair, assuming they haven’t done something horrendous to each other,” Kyle, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting RHOBH season 14. “I think there’s always a way back.”
Kyle and Dorit, 48, had been close friends for the bulk of their joint RHOBH tenure, however, by the end of season 13, it was revealed that the Bravo stars were not on speaking terms.
“I came into this season knowing that we were not in a good place. But I thought, ‘We’re both going through hard times. This is when we should be leaning on each other,’” Kyle explained, referring to their respective separations from husbands Mauricio Umansky and Paul “PK” Kemsley. “I tried that approach, and it wasn’t working. I think that was a lot of my frustration, too.”
She added, “I just thought, ‘Life’s too short. Why are we doing this?’ We were not in a good place after she read my text at the [season 13] reunion, and I lost a lot of trust there. So just trying to work through those things and trying to get that trust back, and we’re better than we were at the beginning of the season, but is our relationship the same right now? No.”
In the trailer for RHOBH season 14, Kyle and Dorit got into a heated altercation at a cast dinner party.
“God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, can you let me talk?” Kyle quipped before Dorit bit back, “It’s OK, Kyle, it’s time for you to f—ing listen.”
Dorit, for her part, has since claimed to Us that she felt “very abandoned” by Kyle.
“There were a lot of things that were left unsaid from the reunion, and I was struggling with that because I really care about her and I considered her like family,” Dorit told Us earlier this month. “But I can’t say that and mean it and not feel it and not feel like it’s reciprocated. There were a lot of things over a sustained period of time that led me to feel that way.”
According to Dorit, it would take having “very honest conversations” to be able to mend fences.
The trailer also alludes to Kyle texting with PK, 57, after he separated from Dorit. While speaking with Us, the Halloween actress confirmed that fans will get more clarity regarding the situation.
“It was more about DMing things and it was, like, things online,” Kyle explained to Us. “I was trying to explain it. We’ve always done that, saying the jokes and stuff, but it just felt like it was being made a bigger thing. And, you know, having to explain, ‘Are there text messages after being friends for 10 years?’ Of course, but I’m not gossiping about your wife to you. So anyway, I just — that was really frustrating.”
Kyle added, “And just felt like, ‘OK, [you were] looking at any excuse to come at me, and I just don’t have it in me right now. I know my character, and you know my character, just stop.’”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 14 kicks off with a supersized premiere Tuesday, November 19, at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo and the next day on Peacock.
With reporting by Amanda Williams
