“What a time to be alive” as the kids say. (By kids I mean middle-age moms like me trying to be cool on the internet.)
Bravo fans have been dealt another huge blow with the split of Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky, a couple so solid that The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was basically built around their family.
Kyle Richards is not just an OG (the last one standing on this franchise) but both of her sisters have appeared on the show and all three are fan favourites for very different reasons. The thing with Kyle in particular is that the chatter around her online is not at all how she is viewed by “real life” fans who don’t live on the internet. Beverly Hills is a tricky franchise to get into because a lot happens off camera and that can grind the storylines to a halt (if I hear the name Lucy Lucy Apple Juice one more f-cking time…) so there are two fandoms: the hyper online fans who dive into the social media storylines that aren’t aired and the fans who just watch the show on TV.
Kyle is loved by the latter and I’ve been told by several people that she gets the most enthusiastic reception at BravoCon. Andy Cohen adores her. The producers seem to love her and she is the face of the franchise, for sure. Part of it is that she’s a devoted mother of four and married to hunky real estate CEO Maurcio Umansky. They’ve been married for 27 years (a long time by any standard) and are a unit, kind of like the Beckhams of reality TV. Everything revolved around their family and they’ve had so many of the Richards family issues aired out on TV (like Kyle outing Kim as an alcoholic and Kathy and Kyle falling out pretty significantly last season) but Kyle’s marriage has been consistent.
That’s not to say this is a surprise. The Bravo fandom could find Amelia Earhart’s plane if they put their minds to it. For months, “the blogs” have been speculating about a split both because their public appearances and social media shout-outs have cooled and also because Kyle has been spending a lot of time with country music singer Morgan Wade, including matching tattoos and maybe even matching rings. So there’s been chatter about this and longstanding, very vague rumours about Mo cheating. To be clear, when it comes to Mo, if he was cheating there has never been a photo, a DM or a personal account so he’s either a master at it or there’s no smoke there.
Recently, the Umansky-Richards family attended a wedding and Kyle’s oldest daughter Farrah (who is not Maurico’s bio daughter but he’s been in her life forever and she works with him) didn’t tag her mom. That’s pointed for regular people (not tagging mom? Modern day Shakespeare!) but remember, these are reality TV stars so the significance is tenfold.
On the series side, it’s coming at the same point Scandoval broke for Vanderpump Rules: after production wrapped but before the reunion has filmed. This gives editors time to craft the season. Will cameras go back up? My guess is no, unless Kyle asks them to film but I don’t think it will involve the entire cast. It’s almost too touchy and one of their daughters is still a teen. That’s not to say this announcement wasn’t executed with a plan: the story dropped first on PEOPLE late Monday before the Fourth of July, when many people were off on a long weekend. TMZ was later and had no additional details.
On Tuesday, Kyle and Mauricio released a joint statement saying they are not divorced, that there were no “wrongdoings” and that they are still working on it. They asked people not to speculate but Kyle is hardly a newbie. She knows that the fandom can’t be controlled so the goal now is to guide the storyline in a way that’s relatable and sympathetic. (My guess is “grew apart” – he and a couple of their daughters have their own Netflix show now and Kyle is acting again and that requires time on location.)
And if you are wondering about the psychic (LOL), here’s the story: in an early season, agent of chaos Camille Grammer (now Meyer) hosted “The Dinner Party from Hell” (that’s the episode name and part of Housewives lore) and invited her friend, Allison DuBois, who was the inspiration for Patricia Arquette’s character on Medium. As the night descended into petty chaos, Allison honed in on Kyle and while taking pulls from her vape, hit her with an iconic line: “He will never emotionally fulfill you — ever. Know that.”
Allison is the side character of the moment. That’s the thing that keeps fans hooked on Bravo – the longevity of the storylines. Scandoval was 10 years in the making. We’ve been watching Kyle and Mauricio build their brand and raise four kids only to be reduced to a prediction made at a dinner party 13 years ago. Are you not entertained?!
