Part one of the four-part Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion has come and gone — and no surprise here, but it brought the drama. Andy Cohen began to prod Erika Jayne about ex-husband Tom‘s legal troubles and alleged affairs, ending on a cliffhanger about Erika’s faithfulness. Ahead of the premiere, HollywoodLife caught up with Kyle Richards to discuss the reunion. Per the RHOBH star, the cast “had to go in hard” on Erika, no matter how awkward.
“I think the fact that it’s four parts speaks volumes,” Kyle, 52, told HL at the Wacoal and Susan G. Komen Foundation Luncheon in West Hollywood on October 13. “A lot of questions get answered. Andy really had to go in hard on Erika. He had to. We had to. We all knew he had to. Even at times, it was very uncomfortable. It’s always awkward, but even sometimes I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is really awkward.'”
One of the revelations laid out in the first episode on Wednesday was that Erika’s lawyers advised her to quit the show amid mounting legal troubles stemming from the lawsuit filed against Tom last year. The former attorney and his firm have been accused of embezzling settlement funds from their former clients, the families of victims who were killed in a 2018 plane crash.
Erika told Andy she declined to quit, “because I have nothing to hide. And they said, ‘You know, this shit can get flipped around on you.'” She elaborated, “Everything can be parsed, twisted, turned and yes, possibly used against you. Whether it is true or not, it almost doesn’t even matter at this point.” While Erika admitted that she considered quitting, she said she wanted to “honor her commitment.”
More so, Erika and Tom have been accused of orchestrating a “sham” divorce to protect their assets amid the lawsuit. Confronting these allegations had been “uncomfortable” indeed, but Kyle assured HL that fans will be “very satisfied” with the remaining three parts. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to make four episodes!” she quipped.
Following the premiere of part one on Wednesday, Variety confirmed reports that Season 12 is set to begin production soon. It’s unclear who will return, but Kyle did tease her own fate to HL at the luncheon. “All good things have to come to an end,” she said. “I don’t know when that time’s going to be, but when it does come to an end, I will be extremely sad. These people are my family. Then the headline is, ‘Kyle will walk away.’ I didn’t say that I’m walking away right now! We haven’t signed any contracts yet for Season 12, but we’ll see.”
Until then, Kyle will be devoting her time to causes important to her, including championing breast cancer awareness with Wacoal and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. “I lost my mother to breast cancer and it’s really important to me to use my platform to bring awareness to breast cancer,” Kyle said. “I love that Wacoal has asked me to partner with them and partner with Susan G. Komen and the fact that they do this event twice a year, the Fit for the Cure event twice a year, where they will give $2 for every fitting that they do with bras.”
“Even if they don’t make a purchase, they give $2 back to the Susan G. Komen Foundation which goes to breast cancer research,” she continued. “To me, that’s amazing. I worry about my children and my nieces. There’s grandchildren now. Wacoal has already given $5.8M to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and what they can do with that money and the research is huge and can really make such a difference.”