Heavy/Getty/Bravo Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky.
Kyle Richards opened up about her separation from Mauricio Umansky.
“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star married The Agency founder in 1996. In July 2023, they confirmed their separation via an Instagram post, but noted that any claims of them divorcing were “untrue.”
In January 2024, Richards spoke out on Sirius XM’s Jeff Lewis Live to explain her living situation with Umansky and what would happen if they divorced. “I can guarantee you I do not want to be in this position, I never wanted to be in this position,” she told Lewis. “I thought I knew where I would be until the day I died.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Kyle Richards Said It’s Not About the Money
GettyKyle Richards & Mauricio Umansky in 2018.
Richards did not hold back in her interview with Lewis. When the “Flipping Out” alum asked her for an update on her marriage, Richards readily offered. “I’ll tell you right now where we’re at,” she replied, before sharing that her whole family is in therapy.
Speaking with Lewis, Richards laughed off claims that she hasn’t divorced Umansky because of “his” money and properties they share. She told Lewis she would never stay in the marriage for financial reasons. “That’s not what my main focus is,” she said. “I mean if we’re not going to be together, I would get divorced 100 percent. I would not live like that because, psychologically, I would need to move on.”
Richards added, “I would never do that just for properties, You know, we did not have a prenup. My husband did not have a penny when I married him.”
The Bravo star said that when she first met her future husband he was working in the clothing business and making “no money.” The young couple relied on loans from their parents and grandparents, she shared.
“So we built everything together,” Richards clarified. “I love when I read these comments ‘Kyle’s just hanging there for his money.’ He didn’t have any money when I married him and it’s our money. You know, let’s be very clear about that.”
“It’s very clean cut,” she added of their assets. “It’s everything in half regardless, so that’s not an issue for me. I mean we would probably just keep our homes. We don’t fight, we’re not a toxic couple. You never would see fighting in our home ever. I mean that seriously. I’m not just saying that. It was not about that.”
“So it would be we just go our separate ways and maybe keep the houses,” Richards added of the couple’s multi-million dollar fortune.
Richards and Umansky have an estimated net worth of $100 million, per Celebrity Net Worth. The longtime couple’s fortune comes from The Agency real estate firm as well as investments, Richards’ acting career and Bravo paycheck, and other business ventures.
Kyle Richards Said It’s ‘Scary’ to Imagine Life Without Mauricio
Elsewhere in the interview with Lewis, Richards admitted that her husband wanted to keep their separation private. “It’s a lot psychologically, you know,” she said. “I mean, I’ve been married almost my entire adult life and like I don’t even know what life is without being with Mauricio. It’s hard and it’s painful and it’s scary.”
“I do feel like my entire identity is being a wife and a mom and that’s been really hard to wrap my head around,” she said of her separation from her husband of 28 years.
The RHOBH star said life with Umansky at home has not changed much except for the fact that they are now in separate bedrooms. “We live together in the same house in different bedrooms,” she told Lewis, adding that they sometimes spend time separately at their vacation homes.
“We fortunately are in the position where we have other homes,” she said. “He spent a lot of time in Aspen recently while I was here. And then I went there for two weeks with our daughters. But if you didn’t know us you would think everything was normal because I’m making dinner, we’re together but we’re in different rooms, you know.”
In December 2023, Richards told fans in an Amazon Live that she understands her living situation may seem “strange” to some. “You know, we get along and we care about each other so much and our family that we’ve built,” she said. “And I know it must seem strange that we live here in this house together but we’re not together. But for now, it’s been working for us.”
“Is that sustainable? I don’t know about that,” she added. “But I can just tell you this is not a situation where there’s fighting going on at all. It’s just, we’re living together but now we have our freedom to do what we want to do.”
In her interview with Lewis, Richards hinted that there had been issues in her marriage for years but she had overlooked them when her daughters were little. “Obviously there were things that we had, you know, kind of dealt with since the beginning of our marriage that you kind of like put aside,” she said. ‘Then you kind of get to a point where you’re like ‘Well am I still dealing with that?’”
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