After that clip was leaked, Mauricio Umanski was even more determined to ask for a divorce from Kyle Richards, but she…

On this season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it’s clear that Kyle Richards has been deeply impacted by her separation from her husband, Mauricio Umansky. Since her separation was announced, Kyle has instituted massive changes to her lifestyle, and she seems to have changed a lot herself. On season 14 of Beverly Hills, as the definitive end of her 27-year marriage to Maurico draws nearer and more likely, Kyle appears adrift and anguished. It seems that Kyle continues to cling to the hope that her husband might someday decide that he’s ready to reconcile. Meanwhile, Mauricio looks to be checked out and moving on. I don’t think he is eager to reunite with his wife, and I doubt that Kyle will be the one to take the next step in ending their marriage, so it seems they’re at a stalemate as to the future of their relationship. He needs to let her go so she can move on, too.

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For years in her marriage to Mauricio, Kyle had a clear idea of what her life would look like, and she settled in comfortably. Kyle and Mau have been a couple for nearly three decades, raised four daughters together, and have historically been one of the healthiest marriages in the whole Housewives franchise. Whispers of Mauricio cheating have popped up here and there, but, as far as we’ve seen, they have never knocked their relationship off balance. It seemed Kyle had a tight-knit, loving family, and her future was all figured out.

Kyle grew up in a family notorious for its internal conflict and melodrama. Her youth was marked by child stardom, divorce, and dysfunction of all sorts. I would imagine that as a result of this turbulent early home life, as well as never ending on-again-off-again feuds with her sisters Kathy and Kim, having a stable, unified family of her own is of the utmost importance to Kyle. So, the decision to separate from her husband has noticeably taken a significant toll and forced her to closely examine unanswered questions about who she is and what her life will look like moving forward.

Kyle Richards Has a Hard Time Being Alone
Morgan Wade sitting on Kyle Richards’ lap in a planeImage by @morganwademusic Instagram
Nowhere is this loss of stability more pronounced than in Kyle’s confusing relationship with country singer Morgan Wade. The two first crossed paths in 2022 when Kyle heard one of her songs on the radio, quickly developed a fascination with Morgan, and slid into her DMs. They became fast friends, ultimately inspiring rumors that their relationship was more than platonic, with Kyle even starring as Morgan’s love interest in one of her music videos. Kyle’s uncertainty about her identity is evident in her relationship with Morgan. The singer is covered in tattoos, and as soon as they became close, Kyle started her own collection of tiny trinket tattoos, a point of contention with her husband at the start of their separation. It feels like Kyle is unsure of who she is as an individual, largely defining herself through her closest relationships. As soon as her marriage began to crumble, she latched onto someone new, plainly illustrating her fears of being alone.

Kyle Richards wipes a tear in Buying Beverly Hills Season 2
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“I Need To Move On”: Kyle Richards Breaks Down on ‘RHOBH’
Richards is stuck between the past and the future.

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The rumors surrounding their relationship have been hard on both women, as the whole ordeal has made Morgan a subject of the rabid world of Real Housewives discourse and has opened Kyle up to unending scrutiny regarding her sexual orientation. Though she doesn’t share much about it on the show these days, she has intimated that, like viewers, she is struggling to understand her sexuality herself. Kyle and Morgan quietly remain attached at the hip, with Kyle currently tagging along as Morgan tours Europe. Regardless of how her relationship unfolds, Kyle has a lot to sort out.

Mauricio Gets the Best of Both Worlds (and New Teeth)
Mauricio-Umansky-teeth
The separation seems to be going differently for Mauricio; he moved out of their shared home in Encino and into a posh condo in a celebrity-riddled building in West Hollywood. He’s been traveling often, partying plenty, and on more than one occasion, he’s been caught by the paparazzi cozying up to a much younger woman. And, like many misguided men on reality television before him, he has pulled my favorite page from the D-list celebrity playbook: Mau bought himself a fresh set of glow in the dark, cinderblock-sized veneers. His dental work playfully gestures at the idea of human teeth if you put on a pair of sunglasses and squint your eyes as though his mouth is an eclipsing sun. It looks like Mauricio is thoroughly enjoying having one foot in his past as a family man with a devoted wife, and one in his new life as a bachelor, in which he gallivants around teeth first, shot taking and shirtless, unburdened by obligation to anyone.

From the outside looking in, it feels like Mauricio might be taking advantage of Kyle’s difficulty accepting the end of their marriage. He appears to be perfectly content living in this limbo in which he gets the best of both worlds while Kyle gets the worst of them, so it’s no surprise he’s not hurrying to file for divorce. I worry that until he puts a certain end to their relationship, Kyle will continue postponing the work of gaining true independence and sorting out her sexuality. “Everyone’s like, ‘Are you getting divorced? Are you getting divorced?’ I mean, everybody asks me that. I think I’m anxious; I’m getting impatient. I’m impatient because I want to know what my life is going to be. I think it’s different for men. I mean, he’s just going and living his best life.” It seems like she’s struggling to accept that this chapter of their lives is coming to a close, and filing for divorce would cement that reality.

Mau sits in the driver’s seat when it comes to the couple’s separation and divorce, and Kyle is simply following his lead. Though Kyle hasn’t been sharing much with viewers, the subtext of her relationships is glaring. Watching her interact with Mau on camera this season has been painful; I get the sense that he almost pities Kyle. It’s time for Mau to shoot straight and let Kyle go — she’ll keep hanging on as long as he lets her. I don’t think Mau has any intention of rekindling their longtime love, so the sooner he ends it, the sooner Kyle can figure out what she wants, and fingers crossed, she’ll find herself riding off into the sunset with Morgan.