Kyle Richards is explaining why she has “a lot of guilt” about bringing Morgan Wade onto The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Weeks after telling Us Weekly that she “felt bad” about welcoming her to filming, Kyle, 54, opened up about how Morgan’s appearance on Wednesday’s episode came about, noted that the 29-year-old musician “doesn’t want the attention,” and shared why she’s planning to move out of Los Angeles.
“[Morgan] came on [the show] as a favor to me because my best friend since I’m 7-years-old passed away. She committed suicide on May 1 and it was a really important event for me. It was a celebration of life and I just wanted to bring more awareness and have suicide be more of an open conversation because it’s such a taboo topic,” Kyle explained on Amazon Live, via a clip shared by Bye Wig Hello Drama on X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to Kyle, she felt it was important to honor her late friend Lorene Shea by bringing awareness to suicide, as well as the impact it has on families, on the show. And because Morgan has talked a lot about mental health in her music, including in her song, “The Night,” whose second part discusses being suicidal, Kyle asked her to perform at her event.
“[Morgan] knew how much I was struggling after losing Lorene and she offered to, well, I asked her and she said she’d be happy to because she was in the middle of touring and she came and sang at this event as a favor to me,” Kyle revealed.
But as RHOBH fans are well aware, the more Kyle and Morgan’s relationship was seen, the more rumors swirled in regard to the potential romantic nature of that relationship.
“She just wants to make music and all the sudden she was thrust into this world of gossip and tabloids and traveling and having paparazzi take pictures of her. And she just doesn’t like any of that,” Kyle shared. “She doesn’t want the attention. She doesn’t want to be talked about. She just wanted to make music.”
“I have a lot of guilt that I put her in this position,” she continued. “Even though she would tell me, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault,’ of course I felt bad because it gave her anxiety seeing these headlines and being thrust into the spotlight … I think she’s kind of adjusted a bit to it now. But it’s all very new to her.”
As for her move, Kyle, who is mom to four daughters, including Farrah Aldjufrie, 35, Alexia Umansky, 27, Sophia Umansky, 23, and Portia Umansky, 15 — she shares the youngest three with estranged husband Mauricio Umansky, 53 — discussed leaving Los Angeles on Wednesday’s RHOBH.
“I will always have a love for Los Angeles, but I just don’t feel as connected to it as I used to,” Kyle admitted. “The things that make me happy are being outside, running by the river, hiking with my dog.”
“One day, when Portia’s done with school, I’m gonna choose some place to live that is more conducive to what brings me happiness,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.