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Kim Richards Speaks After Rehab Stint: “I Love Sobriety, Relapsing Was Very Hard for Me”

Kim Richards Speaks After Rehab Stint
Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards opened up about her drunken arrest, and subsequent stints in rehab: "I love sobriety," she said.

Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards gave a new interview on Wednesday, July 22, opening up in detail about her drunken arrest, subsequent stints in rehab, and her departure from the Bravo show.

"I love sobriety," Richards told Entertainment Tonight. "I've always loved sobriety, and relapsing was very hard for me. It was not easy. I have to say, don't take this wrong, but I really wanted to go to treatment because I needed a break from what I was going through at home."

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The reality star said family stress was the biggest cause for her relapse. "Monty, my ex-husband, is very sick and my son wasn't well," Richards, 50, told ET. "And I had to give away my dog, and I wasn't talking to my sister [Kyle]." (Richards' pit bull Kingsley bit her niece Alexia, Kyle's 19-year-old daughter, last November. The sisters then engaged in a mega feud — also involving Kim's newfound friendship with Brandi Glanville, among other deep-seated issues — that was chronicled this past season on the RHOBH.)

The problems spiraled from there. On April 16, the former child actress was arrested at the Beverly Hills Hotel on charges of public intoxication, battery, and resisting arrest. The reality star checked into rehab early last month, seeking treatment following the high-profile incident.

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"Actually, my arrest was my 'Aha, I get to go away now and rest and take a break from all this,'" Richards revealed. "I don't want anybody to take this wrong, but I truly needed a break from hospitals, family, the pressure. I needed to go away."

Sources told Us Weekly last month that Richards will not be returning to the upcoming season of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Paris and Nicky Hilton's aunt was a regular on the series for nearly five years. "The RHOBH producers really have no interest in bringing her back to the show," a source told Us at the time. "Kim needs to get help and it needs to happen outside of the show."

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However, producers may have experienced a change of heart. "My representative did speak to them," Richards said of a possible return to Bravo's smash franchise. "They have asked me to come back."

Richards told ET on Wednesday that she completed her program, and has been sober beyond 30 days. "I went in and I got to learn a whole lot about myself," she said of rehab. "I dug deep into my past, things that happened to me as a child, good and bad, teenage years, relationships with all my loved ones, where they need to be mended, where they're very powerful. I worked on me."

Although she left rehab to attend her daughter Brooke's Cabo wedding in May, Richards explained why she missed her niece Nicky's recent nuptials in London. "I decided to stay in treatment," she shared.

Richards also revealed the current status of her relationship with Kyle. "I've talked to her a couple of times when she's been in France and London," Kim dished. "She came to Brooke's wedding. And that was actually the first time I had seen her in six to seven months. So that was a little hard."

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