Back in October, the public learned that armed robbers had successfully broken into the home of reality star Dorit Kemsley. She was unfortunately present when the crime took place but was able to remain relatively calm as the thieves threatened her life and made off with several expensive items. We’ve known since then that the home invasion was going to figure into Kemsley’s storyline on Season 12 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, given how she was in the midst of actually filming the series at the time. But reliving the scary ordeal through the eyes of millions of viewers was another story entirely for Kemsley, according to her co-star, Kyle Richards.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills did indeed document what happened. In the premiere episode on May 11, in fact, Dorit Kemsley was shown emotionally breaking down as she described the ordeal to her friends and husband PK (the latter of whom had only just arrived off a plane from London). Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the last remaining OG of the RHBH, Kyle Richards, was candid about Kemsley following through with therapy after the incident like she said she would. She added that her fellow castmate was kind of bombarded when it all came up again online and elsewhere, seven months after the fact. She said:
It was very disturbing for her to relive watching the robbery on the show. She's been working therapy-- I mean, I don't want to speak for her, but I know that she's been working with a therapist, and for all of a sudden to have people talking about it again, even if you're not watching the news, if you're on Instagram, you're scrolling, you're seeing the clips, and it just brings back all the memories of all the stuff she's been working on, to try to get over.
Following the initial events, the star made her first public statement, confirming that her two children (ages 5 and 7) were also in the house at the time. Thankfully, they remained sleeping and no one was physically harmed. Although on the show, Kemsley claimed that it was a close call, as she had just moved one of her kids to their own bed beforehand. Later on, the Bravo alum shared more harrowing details about how she had to repeatedly beg the robbers to not kill her because of her children. She continued that she was experiencing panic attacks from the trauma as a result.
It appeared that the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills caught the 45-year-old oncamera in the midst of one of those panic attacks. Her husband had briefly left her outside Kyle Richards’ home to retrieve his phone inside, only for Dorit Kemsley to be seen sitting on a bench, quaking in visible fear. Reflecting on those sensitive moments that the show always happens to capture, Richards sarcastically told the outlet, “It's the gift that keeps on giving.” But all in all, she continued:
Usually it's about a fight or an argument, which is already hard enough, but when you go through something really traumatic, like Dorit and [her husband] PK did, to have to relive it on the show and then again on the reunion, it's going to be a very long road for recovery for them.
Those typical co-star arguments are certainly already popping off as well in Season 12, with Sutton Stracke at the center of the drama. She showed a decided lack of empathy for her colleague after the home invasion, which didn't sit well with Kyle Richards, and she also found herself at odds with Lisa Rinna over some supposed charity event tea on Watch What Happens Live. Stracke and Erika Jayne, too, are still at each other’s throats since last year, concerning the latter’s culpability in her legal issues. Yet Stracke might just have an ally in Crystal Kung Minkoff, who was shown in the season’s trailer defending the alleged embezzlement victims of Jayne and her ex, Tom Girardi.
Obviously, there’s a lot of drama going on, per usual. Hopefully, though, Dorit Kemsley is able to find some closure from the events she experienced without the show putting too much on her in the process. Tune into new episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which air on Bravo on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST and streaming next-day with Peacock Premium.
