Mauricio Umansky raised eyebrows after being spotted getting cozy with Dancing With the Stars partner Emma Slater as he continues to navigate his marriage woes with Kyle Richards.
Umansky, 53, was seen holding hands with Slater, 34, on Sunday, October 22, following dinner in Beverly Hills, according to photos obtained by TMZ. The twosome were also snapped sharing a laugh before their meal.
In the pictures, Umansky wore a black hoodie, khaki pants and a backwards hat as he met up with Slater. The professional dancer donned black leggings, a crewneck sweater and sneakers as she walked side by side with her season 32 partner.
The duo’s night out comes one month after Umansky made his DWTS debut with Slater as his designated pro. Ahead of the season premiere, the Buying Beverly Hills star exclusively told Us Weekly how excited he was to work with Slater.
“Emma’s an absolute veteran and so good,” he gushed in September. “I needed somebody that was super competitive. And we’re just gonna go crush it and we’re gonna create magic.”
As Umansky has grown close to Slater on the dance floor, his complicated relationship with estranged wife Richards, 54, has continued to make headlines. News broke in July that Umansky and Richards’ relationship hit a rough patch after 27 years of marriage.
“We have had a rough year. The most challenging one of our marriage,” the pair, who share daughters Alexia, 27, Sophia, 23, and Portia, 15, wrote via Instagram that same month. “But we both love and respect each other tremendously. There has been no wrongdoing on anyone’s part. Although we are in the public eye, we ask to be able to work through our issues privately.” (Richards also shares daughter Farrah, 34, with ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie.)
While Umansky and Richards stressed at the time that they are not getting divorced, they have since confirmed that they’re at a crossroads.
“Kyle and I are human beings. We have emotions, we have feelings, we’re going through a really hard time. We are currently separated,” Umansky told TMZ on September 29. “We are not talking about divorce. We’re trying to deal with this stuff internally, with ourselves, privately.”
The twosome’s relationship status was called into question once again when the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 trailer dropped earlier this month. In the video, Richards’ costars questioned what was happening with her marriage, with Garcelle Beauvais asking, “If there was infidelity, would you stay?”
Richards replied in the October 3 clip, “I don’t know.” Her dynamic with Umansky was scrutinized even more in the trailer after Richards was shown tattooing the letter “K” on pal Morgan Wade’s body.
The Halloween Kills actress has previously denied that she’s in a romantic relationship with Wade, 28, after rumors surfaced this summer.
Umansky, meanwhile, explained via social media that his October 3 DWTS misstep was due in part to the RHOBH trailer coming out. (Umansky was almost eliminated from DWTS after missing a “big chunk” of his routine on Latin Night due to stress from his family drama coming out on RHOBH.)
“Right before the dance, the trailer for the [upcoming season of] Real Housewives of Beverly Hills came out about my marriage, and my kids were in the [Dancing With the Stars] audience and I wasn’t addressing it with them,” Umansky told Slater during the October 10 episode.
Slater, for her part, has been working through her own relationship hardships after splitting from fellow DWTS pro Sasha Farber last year. Us broke the news in August 2022 that Slater and Farber, 39, had separated that April. Slater filed for divorce in February and has since had to work alongside her estranged husband for the ABC dance competition.
“It’s not a nightmare at all,” she told E! News in October of seeing Farber regularly. “We support each other so much that I want the very best for Sasha. I love him and Alyson [Hannigan] together on the show. We support each other, very, very truly.”
