Kyle Richards Defends Telling Lisa Vanderpump She Had Things ‘Going On In My Life Too’ After Brother’s Suicide

Kyle Richards faced backlash over a comment she made to Lisa Vanderpump during the debut episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 9 on Monday night.

After Vanderpump grew overwhelmed by an argument she and Richards were having at her Vanderpump Dogs animal rescue center in Los Angeles, Richards fired back at her by suggesting that she, too, had “sh*t going on in [her] life.” However, because Vanderpump had just lost her brother, Mark Vanderpump, to suicide, some took the comment as insensitive — and slammed Richards on Twitter.

“The fact that [Kyle Richards’] first response when [Lisa Vanderpump] started crying was ‘I have sh*t going on in my life too!’ just shows her true colors,” one person wrote this week.

While Vanderpump may have been more emotional than normal during her encounter with Richards during the first episode of Seaon 9, her brother’s death wasn’t part of their conversation. Instead, the two women were feuding after Richards suggested that Vanderpump was trying to make her look bad, and allowing others to treat her poorly while doing nothing about it.

That said, Richards regretted her comment — and responded to the angry messages by explaining that she was going through hard times during filming due to her struggles with anxiety.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I was referring to the fact that I was dealing with crippling anxiety & had to start taking medication for it,” she explained.

Richards then said her struggles were “NOTHING compared to what” Vanderpump experienced after the loss of her sibling.

Richards and Vanderpump’s feud was spotlighted during the first several seconds of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ Season 9 premiere. Fans were given a sneak peek at Richards’ feud with Ken Todd, which resulted in the mother of four being kicked out of the home he and Vanderpump share.

Although it is not yet known what led to Richards’ feud with Todd, it was quite clear during the premiere episode that Vanderpump appeared to be trying to publicly exploit Dorit Kemsley for allowing a dog she adopted from Vanderpump Dogs to be dropped off at a different animal shelter. However, as fans also saw on Tuesday, it wasn’t Kemsley who abandoned the dog. Instead, it was a friend she gave the animal to after it began biting her family.

To see more of Richards, Vanderpump, and their co-stars, don’t miss new episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 9. The show airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. For readers outside the U.S., visit Suicide.org or Befrienders Worldwide for international resources you can use to find help.