Peacock Morgan Wade.
Kyle Richards shared new details about why she regrets bringing her friend Morgan Wade on to “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
During a fan Q&A on her Amazon Live on January 9, 2024, Richards, 54, explained that the 29-year-old country singer offered to do her a favor by performing at a benefit for the National Alliance on Mental Illness that she had organized. “She came on as a favor to me because my best friend since I was 7 years old passed away,” Richards said in reference to the suicide death of her childhood best friend Lorene Shea in May 2022.
“It was a really important event for me,” Richards added. “I really wanted to do an important episode to honor Lorene and just bring light to suicide and what it does to people who are struggling. And Morgan has talked a lot about that in her music. One of her songs. ‘The Night,’ addresses that specifically,” she added.
Although Wade was in the middle of touring, she agreed to perform at the benefit. But the benefit was also an RHOBH filming event, which brought even more attention, and paparazzi, to it.
“I felt terrible to have put her in that position,” Richards said of Wade.
Kyle Richards Said Morgan Wade Doesn’t Want Reality TV Attention
PeacockMorgan Wade and Kyle Richards
Wade has appeared in several scenes on RHOBH season 13 and was even featured in the season 13 trailer amid rumors of a romantic relationship between her and Richards. But she had the most camera time in episode 11, titled “A Celebration of Life,” which featured the NAMI benefit.
Richards explained that Wade wasn’t looking for the attention, and just wanted to help her out. “She came and sang at this event as a favor to me,” Richards said on the livestream. “She’s an artist, she just wants to make music and all of the sudden she’s thrust into this world of gossip and tabloids and paparazzi taking pictures of her. And she doesn’t like any of that. She doesn’t want the attention, she doesn’t want to be talked about. She just wants to make music.”
“I felt a lot of guilt that I put her in this position. Even though she told me ‘It’s not your fault,’ I still felt bad,” Richards added. “It gave her anxiety. I felt terrible to have put her in that position. I think she has adjusted to it a little bit now, but it’s all very new to her.”
Kyle Richards Previously Said She Regretted Bringing Morgan on TV
PeacockMorgan Wade hugs Kyle Richards.
Richards previously talked about bringing Wade into her reality TV world and how the singer dealt with the cameras at the NAMI benefit. “She told me at the NAMI event she almost wanted to leave at one point — she was like, ‘This is so stressful,’” Richards told the New York Times in August 2023. “I carried some guilt for having her be a victim of this because of me. I felt like it was collateral damage and I felt guilt about that.”
In December 2023, Richards again admitted she had some regrets about thrusting Wade into the RHOBH spotlight. “In the beginning, I did [regret it] because even though she’s an artist and a musician, she’s not someone who wants this attention,” Richards told Us Weekly. “I felt bad about that.”
Wade previously said it felt “weird” and “strange” to see tabloid stories about herself. “I’m not used to that at all,” she told 103.5 Kiss FM in an interview last year. “I’m not a reality television star. I like to be left alone and write music.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide please call the National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine at (800) 950-NAMI or Text NAMI to 741-741.
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