Kathy Hilton gave an interesting take about a big change her sister Kyle Richards made amid the latter’s ongoing split from Maurico Umansky.
As Kyle and Mauricio’s separation played out on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 14, Kathy firmly said she wasn’t on board with one move Kyle made. In Season 14, Episode 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills After Show, Kathy weighed in on why Kyle shouldn’t have done the social media equivalent of taking off her wedding ring, removing the word “wife” from her Instagram bio.
“I probably personally would not have taken ‘wife’ off because that would show my cards, and I would not want him to know that I’m really thinking about [it] — like, I’m just so busy,” Kathy said. “That’s why I don’t unfollow people if you have a disagreement, because why give them that attention?”
Why did Kyle Richards remove ‘wife’ from her Instagram bio?
Kyle explained in the After Show that she had a “hard time” removing the label because it was so ingrained as part of her identity. But, after seeing photos of Mauricio kissing another woman at an airport in Greece, she decided to “get the ball moving.”
In Episode 14, Kyle also struggled to come to terms with Mauricio scrubbing the word “husband” from his own social media account, making the mother of four feel “stupid” as she kept her married status public. Plus, Kyle knew the tabloids would pick up on the change to her bio for Mauricio to see.
“I knew that in me doing that, people would talk about it because everything is being looked at through a magnifying glass,” Kyle told producers. “So, I thought, ‘Well, this is not just a little step. I know that people are going to talk about it, so it’s actually a bigger step because it’s also letting people know I am also moving on.’”
She also removed “Umansky” from her display name on Instagram.
The RHOBH cast reacts to Kyle Richards removing “wife” from her Instagram bio
In the After Show video above, Garcelle Beauvais and Jennifer Tilly agreed that removing “wife” was Kyle’s way of drawing a line in the sand, primarily because they were under the impression that Kyle still hoped the split would be temporary.
“Listen, seeing those pictures with Mau, I would have absolutely, absolutely, taken ‘wife’ off my Instagram, and I would have changed the locks,” Garcelle told Jennifer and Sutton Stracke.
The trio discussed other ways Kyle could have created boundaries between her and Mauricio. Sutton said her therapist advised her to “change the locks” during her divorce from Christian Stracke.
“It took me years to do it,” the southern debutante admitted. Sutton then suggested Kyle talk to “every mean lawyer in Beverly Hills” to prevent Mauricio from hiring them himself.
Meanwhile, Dorit Kemsley told Bozoma Saint John in the After Show that she believed Kyle felt “embarrassed” by the photos of Mauricio kissing another.
“It probably felt like, ‘You know what? This is appropriate,’” Dorit said of Kyle’s decision.
And, while on the topic of Kyle changing her Instagram bio, the Beverly Beach designer questioned whether she did the same amid her ongoing separation from Paul “PK” Kemsley.
“Oh, shoot,” she explained while scratching her head and checking her phone. “Maybe I did!”
Don’t miss the latest on Kyle and Mauricio’s ongoing separation, including the moment Kyle realized the split was “permanent.”