Kyle Richards shared new details on how she was cast on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
During a March 2026 appearance on “The Bossticks” podcast, the Bravo TV OG revealed that producers expressed interest in her after she did an interview for the “E! True Hollywood Story” titled “The Hilton Sisters.” The 2005 documentary featured Richards in archival footage and in interviews as it detailed her niece Paris Hilton’s famous rise in Hollywood.
“That interview actually led to the ‘Housewives,’” Richards revealed to hosts Lauryn and Michael Bosstick. “They asked me to do that interview and … somehow, I became the spokesperson for our family because [my sister] Kathy [Hilton], like you know, felt uncomfortable to talk and whatever. I was always the one talking, I was good at it. I was comfortable, and I don’t know…”
“I did that E! Hollywood story about Paris and Nicky, actually, and then someone saw it, a casting person from ‘The Real Houses of Beverly Hills,’ and they reached out,” she continued. “And I was like, ‘I don’t want to do reality television. I’m an actress. I don’t want to do that.’”
Richards revealed that as she waited for the show to be greenlit, she watched the Orange County version of the franchise.
“So I started watching some of the shows, but I was like, ‘Oh, that’s different for them. I wouldn’t be fighting with anybody. I’m just going to be home with my kids and playing and having fun, and my kids are so cute. Who wouldn’t want to see my kids?'” she shared. “I did not know what I was getting myself into!”
Kyle Richards Talked About Her Pre-Housewives Fame
Richards started out as a child actress in the 1970s. She had a recurring role on “Little House on the Prairie,” and she also appeared in the 1978 horror classic, “Halloween.”
“I mean, my first TV series I was five, but I’d already been working before that even. So I was like three and four, and then I went on to do movies from there,” Richards said on the podcast. “You know, my first movie was at five years old, and I did like scary movies, like Halloween, when I was seven. So I’d done that my whole life, and you know that was my career, and I feel like some people, a lot of people do realize that, but some people don’t realize that, too.”
Richards said her mother, Kathleen Dugan, pushed her three daughters to get into acting to make them “independent.” Middle sister Kim Richards became the most famous as a child actress, but Kyle Richards is the longest-running “Real Housewives” star in history. She has also continued her acting career with recent roles in “Lincoln Lawyer” and the newly announced “911: Nashville.”
Kyle Richards Said She’d Do RHOBH All Over Again
BravoRichards raised her kids in front of Bravo’s cameras. During a February 2026 Amazon Live, she noted of her youngest child, Portia, “She’s been on TV since she was one year old. We had her second birthday party on Season 1. So, she went from diapers to going to college.”
The mom of four said she had no regrets about her family’s reality TV fame because it led them to so many positive opportunities.
“I mean, there’s been times, of course, I would probably give you a different answer, but sitting here today, I mean, I would do it again,” the RHOBH star told the Bossticks. “I appreciate and I acknowledge the things that it has done for me. It’s opened a lot of doors, you know.”
