Getty Kim Richards.
Kim Richards gave an update on her memoir.
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star’s tell-all book was in the works, but publication for it never happened – at least not yet.
In March 2021, an insider told The Daily Mail that the book, which was originally supposed to be published in April 2020, was scrapped by the publisher even after the former Bravo star was paid an advance.
“They killed it,” the source told the outlet. “’And they’re letting Kim keep the $300,000 book advance. [Harper Collins] said they didn’t think they would ‘be able’ to recoup the money so they’re taking it as a loss.”
In 2019, Richards was sued by ghostwriter Allison Kingsley Baker for $5,000 in unpaid services, per Reality Blurb.
But what really happened? Here’s what you need to know:
Kim Richards Revealed What Really Happened With Her Book
BravoKim Richards.
In a July 2022 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Richards gave her side of what happened with her book, which was originally supposed to be titled “The Whole Truth: The Reality of It All.”
“I was working with a private writer and she was gonna send me weekly updates, and she didn’t,” Richards told the outlet. “I kept calling her and saying, ‘You’re supposed to give me [an update] every week.”
The Bravo veteran added that the ghostwriter finally told her, “I’m busy and you’ll get them when you get them,” and that she later revealed she had written 375 pages of the book without Richards’ help.
“I never saw the book and I don’t know what was in it,” Richards added, noting that it was all “too much” during the height of the COVID pandemic. “COVID hit and I thought, I don’t want it [released] during COVID,” she said. “It was a scary time for me.”
Richards reiterated that she never saw any of the writer’s manuscript and that if she were to take another try at writing a book it would be a lot different.
“I’ve changed a lot since then, so I don’t even know that [any of] that would apply any longer,” she said of her story. ”I’m so different today — and hopefully in a good way — but I don’t know that I would want to say or write. .. I didn’t know who I was until I spent two years by myself [during COVID].”
Kim Richards Said Writing the Book Was ‘Painful’
Getty ImagesKim Richards.
Richards started out as a child star in the 1970s and has dealt with several tragedies in her life, including the murder of her fiancé, John Collett, per People, and the deaths of her mother, Kathleen Dugan, her father, Ken Richards, and her first husband, Monty Brinson.
The now-deleted book description for “The Whole Truth” on the HarperCollins website teased Richards’ “soul-baring confession of a woman revealing what it was like to be treated like a show pony as a child star, as a disposable object as a wife, a whipping post as a sister, and as a tabloid commodity as a celebrity,” according to People.
Richards previously told Page Six it was “rough” for her to relive her painful past while writing her memoir.
“Looking back at my life, every bit of it from the beginning, was very, wow,” she said in 2019. “Some of the … painful parts were tough. It’s been beautiful, too. I’ve grown a lot.”
In the new ET interview, Richards said COVID added to the stress of the book writing process.
“The last thing I thought I needed was to look back at my mother passing away, and [my late ex-husband] Monty leaving, my dad… it was just very, those were the most important things that I didn’t really want to look back at. I was trying to live in the now, and it was really something I just physically couldn’t do at that point.”
READ NEXT: Andy Cohen Reveals RHOBH Star He Wants to Bring Back