‘RHOBH’ Recap: Kyle Richards cries remembering late girlfriend Lorene
Kyle Richards reeling from the loss of her “very, very, very best friend” Lorene Shea.
“Lorene was my other half. We always said we were separated at birth, except she was almost 6 feet tall and blonde,” Kyle, 54, revealed in her confessional during the Wednesday, December 13, episode. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. “I met Lorene in second grade, we were seven years old, and we were best friends ever since.”
Kyle called her deceased friends “the most important person in my life outside of my family.” She said Lorene knew more about her than “anyone else,” including her estranged husband. Mauricio Umanski. “Your best friend all these years knows everything,” Kyle added.
Lorene died by suicide in May 2022.
“I can’t even say the word. She took her own life on May 1,” the Bravo star told her therapist in an emotional scene during Wednesday’s episode, which was filmed late last year. “I don’t know what happened because she was together like that. I mean, literally, in my will she was in charge of my children, my money, my everything. They were together like that and then suddenly – I don’t know what happened. I have no answers. it’s so frustrating for me.”
Lorene made a brief appearance next to Kyle RHOBH in 2015. When she passed away, Kyle paid a heartfelt tribute to her late friend.
“Not so long ago, she began suffering from debilitating depression. She had always been a happy person. How did this happen? Everyone who loved her rallied around her and did everything that could be done to get her help. But the system is broken,” Kyle wrote on Instagram in May 2022. “The system made it impossible to get her the help she needed. Last Sunday we lost Lorene. The system has failed her! The system has failed her loved ones, who are now in unbearable pain. I will do whatever it takes to try to help change the laws that are in place that prevent people from getting the help they need.”
Further discussion of Lorene’s death during Wednesday RHOBH episode, Kyle said she “never thought something like this could happen.”
In the aftermath of Lorene’s death – plus the ongoing battles with her eldest sister, Kathy Hiltonand discourse in her marriage – Kyle admitted that she does “anything” to feel safe.
“I try to surround myself with people who I love and who love me, who support me and only want the best for me and I only want the best for them. I take care of my body,” she said. “I just try to do all the things that will make me feel stronger. It worked.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 8pm ET.