Clearing the air? Kyle Richards claims her response to Erika Jayne yelling at Garcelle Beauvais‘ teenage son on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been blown out of proportion.
The Halloween Kills star, 53, came under fire for laughing in a clip from the Bravo show after Erika, 50, instructs Jax, 14, to “get the f–k out” of his mom’s birthday party. Kyle and her husband, Mauricio Umansky, were called out by fans for praising Erika’s “more relaxed” attitude during the bash, but Kyle claims viewers don’t have the full context.
“I didn’t even see Erika say that, I was told the next day,” she told the U.K.’s Metro ahead of the Wednesday, July 6, episode. “I was laughing at a friend’s drunken behavior as one does sometimes. Nothing to do with disrespecting anyone’s child, especially.”
Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne, and Garcelle Beauvais. Shutterstock(3)
The Little House on the Prairie alum continued, “I’m a mom of four daughters. I think if I had obviously seen it — because I only saw it actually last night on Instagram, that clip — I would have a different reaction. But when you hear a story like that, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I laugh sometimes at the wrong moments, but it wasn’t about Garcelle and her son, it was about Erika.”
Kyle asserted that she wasn’t “used to seeing that” behavior from Erika. “You hear a story the next day, ‘Oh, my God, so and so was so drunk, they did this and that,’ and we laughed, it was like that,” she added. “To think that someone misinterpreted it as that, that I didn’t care and being flippant about someone’s child … I would hope that after 12 years on this show [that] people know me better.”
Bravo fans weren’t the only ones shocked by the scene — Garcelle, 55, told her Twitter followers she hadn’t seen the clip until it made waves on Instagram on Monday, July 4. One day later, she seemingly threw shade at her costar while sharing a sweet family photo.
“This is an appreciation post for my sons Oliver, Jax, & Jaid. You boys make me so proud … you are loving, kind, and respectful. You show respect to people even when they don’t deserve it. Respect is a reflection of your character, not theirs,” the NYPD Blue alum tweeted on Tuesday, July 5.
Kyle, for her part, previously defended herself amid the backlash. “I was laughing about a friend’s drunken, ridiculous behavior,” she wrote in an Instagram comment. “NOT about disrespecting someone’s child. I think you know me better than that by now. I wasn’t even there to see this and only heard about Erika and what she had said later.”
When asked whether she’d been able to discuss the drama with Garcelle since the scene made headlines, the socialite told Metro, “Actually no, because I’m in London. I don’t know what time [it is], it’s 2 a.m. or something right now, I’m not even sure. But that’s my plan … to send her a text.”
Before season 12 of RHOBH premiered in May, eagle-eyed fans noticed Garcelle unfollowed Erika on Instagram. The Jamie Foxx Show alum dished on the disconnect during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, hinting that she wasn’t on the best of terms with the “Pretty Mess” performer.
“For me, I wanna follow people that [when] you’re seeing their feed, you wanna follow them. You wanna like them,” Garcelle explained in February. “You want to cheer them on, and I just didn’t wanna do that. I didn’t wanna see it.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
