Alexia Umansky also shares how she began to notice her parents' relationship was no longer the same.
When it came to her famous parents' split, Alexia Umansky confirmed they kept the real in reality TV.
It's been nearly a year since news of Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky's separation after 27 years of marriage broke in July 2023. As their 27-year-old daughter Alexia confirmed on the Scrubbing In With Becca Tilley & Tanya Rad podcast, Kyle and Mauricio's four daughters found out about the split in the same way fans around the country did -- from a news article.
"The news of my parents' separation came out before we had ever talked about it as a family internally," she said. The next day, cameras for Buying Beverly Hills -- Mauricio's real estate-focused reality TV series for Netflix -- arrived.
By that point, according to Alexia, the sisters were tired of brushing family matters under the rug.
"We just kind of had a moment -- we were like, 'We need to start talking,'" she recalled. "And the cameras were gonna be there anyway, so we just leaned in. And that was in July, so a lot has changed since then, but now we talk about everything."
Before their separation made headlines, Alexia said she "could tell that things were not the same" with her parents and was "piecing it all together." She noted that her mom and dad were traveling more, not as affectionate with each other, had opposite schedules, and interests that were not aligning. "I could tell that they weren't each other's priority anymore," she explained, "and they were just changing."
Once the news broke, cameras not only captured those emotional family moments, but kicked off the new season with them as the first episode opened with Mauricio having a sit-down with stepdaughter Farrah, 35, and daughters Alexia, and Sophia, 24. Their youngest daughter, Portia, 16, was not present.
"What was filmed was really like two of the four big conversations we've had as a family," Alexia said on the podcast. "We had one conversation when the news came out, but my sister, Farrah, wasn't there."
Continued Alexia, "So the next day when the cameras came, Farrah came and that was the first full conversation as a family we had." As she put it, "That was as real as it gets, and as honest and open as it gets, which is so crazy."
Despite this trying personal time for the family, it's her daughters who Kyle credits with helping her through it.
"They just have been the most unbelievable source of support for me," Richards previously told ET. "It's funny because I'm the mom, but they are giving me advice and they're just so smart and so together."
"Obviously, as a mom, I worry about them first," she noted. "But they really have been taking care of me, too. These have been some of my most proud moments as a mom, honestly, with how they've handled all this."
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