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Credit: Lisa OConnor/AFF-USA.com / MEGA, Shutterstock/ Michael Mattes
Kathy Hilton explained why she joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills during a podcast appearance on Wednesday.
As she also spoke of the series’ impact on her relationship with her sister, Kyle Richards, 56, revealed where she stands with Mauricio Umansky, 55, and dished on her relationships with Andy Cohen, 57, and her husband Rick Hilton, 69, Kathy, 66, admitted that her daughters, Paris Hilton, 44, and Nicky Hilton, 41, did not want her to be featured on the Bravo show.
“It was during COVID. I was bored, and Kyle and I had been kind of separated,” Kathy explained of her decision to join RHOBH on the July 23 episode of Call Her Daddy. “It was a fun way to spend time with her … We were like little girls again and having fun and laughing … We just laughed and had a really good time.”
“Also, it’s a great platform to be able to do a lot of things,” she added.
According to Kathy, her allegedly ongoing feud with Kyle has been “exaggerated.” In fact, looking back on their relationship, she revealed they’d only had three real fights.
“I’ll read things four hours ago. ‘Kathy and Kyle are still not getting along.’ What?” she asked. “We’re not fighters.”
Another thing Kathy believed was exaggerated was Mauricio’s feud with her husband, whose real estate company he left to start his own
“I think that got taken out of context … I like Mauricio. I wish him the best, and we had a lot of good times together,” she shared. “He’s the father of my nieces, and I love my nieces. All of our children are like siblings, and it’s really sweet.”
While Kathy admitted it would “put a smile on [her] face” if Kyle and Mauricio reconciled, she noted that her main concern was for their children.
“I don’t like change. And I don’t care how old your children are. It hurts,” she explained.
As for whether she’d ever be full-time on RHOBH, Kathy confirmed she would not.
“I couldn’t because I have my husband, I have my children, my grandchildren. I have other businesses, and I would in no way be able to devote the time,” she reasoned. “I love the job I have. I can come in. I really have a good time with the girls.”
When Kathy first joined RHOBH in a part-time role for season 11, her daughters weren’t happy.
“They just wouldn’t want me on a show where there’s a lot of drama [but] now they love it and they enjoy it and they get a kick out of it,” she explained.
Regarding her relationship with Andy, Kathy described him as “adorable” and “funny.”
“But I treat him more like he’s my boss. I’m not gonna be like, ‘Oh, Andy,’ you know?” she asked.
Moving on to her marriage to Rick, Kathy recalled meeting him when she was 15 and he was 19.
“He looked like a blonde surfer,” she shared. “We met through a friend, and he was going to school [in] Denver, so he’d kind of go back and forth.”
Kathy was then asked how she knew she was ready to settle down.
“We had gone on the ski vacation to Lake Tahoe and when it was time to leave and to go back, he was going to go to New York to go work for an investment banking firm, so we are laying in bed watching the Flintstones and he looks at me and goes, ‘We need to pack up and everything.’ We’ve been there for a while and he said, ‘We need to go home and tell, you know, your parents and my parents that we’re gonna be getting married,’” she shared. “I just remember driving back in this pickup truck to LA with him, and he dropped me at my house, and he said, ‘I’m gonna go home and take a shower and then come back and pick you up,’ and I remember holding onto him and just starting to cry. ‘I don’t want you to leave, like not even for a minute.’”
After getting married at 19, Kathy welcomed daughter Paris at 20. Decades later, Kathy said she had no regrets.
“I don’t have one. I really believe that God was, I really have angels there ’cause it, you know, coming from a divorced family, I never wanted that, and I think that the girls really take that seriously. You know, they really respect it and they waited. They wanted to find the right person,” she shared. “And my boys as well, because a lot of their friends, their parents were divorced, and when I was little, there wasn’t as much of that, and I almost felt shameful. That might sound strange, but it bothered me.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 is currently in production and is expected to begin airing on Bravo sometime later this year or early next year.
