It’s not all diamonds and rosé in Beverly Hills anymore. After months of speculation, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 13 premiere puts Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky in the hot seat as the latter begs his “rebelling” wife to stop getting tattoos.
The duo has previously admitted to hitting a rough patch in their marriage — and while Umansky confirmed their separation, both have said divorce is not in the conversation at the moment. Still, fans get a glimpse at where things began to go wrong at the end of the hit Bravo show’s premiere episode.
“Mau and I have had a challenging year together,” Richards says in her confessional. “He has been working nonstop, I’ve been working. When you have to schedule a meeting to go over your schedule, you know it’s a problem.”
After several moments of Richards complaining as Umansky talks on the phone, he finally hangs up and joins her on the couch — where he tells her she looks “amazing,” before praising her for “working out like a beast,” “eating well” and sobering up.
“When you go through painful times in your life, it changes you as a person,” she says. “My sister, feeling let down by my friends, feeling disconnected from my husband, you have to find an outlet. I feel good about it. I hope Mau does too, because here I am.”
However, their conversation takes a turn when Umansky notices a new tattoo on Richards, who already has five. When he says he “only knew of three,” she snarks that maybe he should be looking at her body more.
“This is clearly a big symptom of not spending time together,” she explains. “Years ago, he would’ve noticed a freckle on my body and now he doesn’t know that I have two more tattoos.”
Things grow even more tense as Umansky — who thinks “five tattoos is a lot” — begs his wife not to get any more ink. While he says she has “enough” and claims he “will not allow” her to get tatted again, an “irritated” Richards fires back that he doesn’t have a choice.
“I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have to explain anything to anybody anymore — including you,” she snaps. “I went from doing everything my mom told me to do, to being a mom myself and having to be a good example to my girls, and I just realize that you can do all that and things can still go to shit.”
According to Richards, she no longer feels like she has to answer to anybody.
Umansky tells her, “Well, you don’t. Don’t become a rebellious person and do it out of rebellion. Do it because you want it,” to which she hits back, “Listen, I am very fucking clear right now. I am not rebelling. I am just really clear.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c. New episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.