The past year has been a complicated one in the Richards-Umansky household, not to mention a confusing one for fans of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The latest season of the Cali-based Bravo franchise, which you can catch up on with an active Peacock subscription, has largely revolved around Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky's ongoing marital troubles.
There've been questions over whether or not the reality TV pair have actually split up, along with rumors about the true nature of Kyle's "friendship" with country star Morgan Wade. But is all of the relationship drama between Kyle and Mauricio simply being dragged out for TV sake?
That's what "sources close to the estranged couple" have been telling TMZ, especially with the second season of Mauricio's Netflix show Buying Beverly Hills set to drop on Friday, March 22. Like the current season of RHOBH, the reality estate-focused reality series will allegedly feature Richards and Umansky's split as a major storyline.
Umansky told People magazine that he and Kyle had a "choice" to pretend like their estrangement "wasn't happening" while filming both of their respective reality shows—the Beverly Hills pair announced their separation publicly in a joint Instagram statement in July 2023—but the broker felt that "would’ve been awkward on television." He told the outlet:
There were definitely challenges. It was happening, it was real life. We had the cameras on...The reality is that we are going through our issues after being married for 28, 29 years. We did it and we chose to put it on camera and it was great, and now the audience gets to see the way that we interacted with each other.
However, sources told TMZ that "while they haven't confirmed new relationships... they've both been living such separate lives" and that despite the fact that Kyle and Mauricio have maintained that they're still living under the same roof, "they have multiple homes they can bounce between if things get tense."
And many Real Housewives fans believe that the estranged couple are deliberately keeping their separation drama going to fuel viewership numbers. Twitter user @solidgoldbabe took to the social media platform to complain about Kyle and Mauricio not offering up real details about what's going on between them:
This Kyle/Mauricio storyline has been dragged out and there’s not even a “story”! If you’re going to use this for the show constantly then you have to give details or don’t talk about it all. #rhobh
Another X commenter, @snuggler1999, believes that the "Kyle and Mauricio storyline" is "all about publicity":
Don’t buy this Kyle and Mauricio storyline. They are desperate for publicity. It’s all about publicity and the almighty dollar to them. For gods sake, they still live together.
User @aey1004 believes that both Kyle and Mauricio have clearly been dating other people and doesn't understand why the estranged duo doesn't just make their separation official with a divorce:
I don't even watch #RHOBH anymore, but I just can NOT with Kyle Richards pretending she hasn't been dating this Morgan character the whole time... Then she shocked about Mauricio possibly dating . I just.. I'm lost in this "Storyline". Why not just get divorced?
And @TsitsiNotha believes that any rumors surrounding Kyle and Mauricio's separation were leaked directly by the couple, because they "both needed to have a storyline" for their shows.
Kyle or Mauricio leaked it. It is people who actually know about the separation. So either both or one them. They both needed to have a storyline for the next season for their shows
What do you think—are Kyle and Mauricio's relationship issues for real? You can see how all of the drama, premeditated or otherwise, plays out between the pair on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 13, which airs on the 2024 TV schedule on Bravo every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. And catch Buying Beverly Hills Season 2 on Netflix beginning Friday, March 22.
