Mauricio Umansky dedicated his upcoming Dancing With the Stars performance to Kyle Richards amid the duo’s separation.
“Tonight’s Dance on @dancingwiththestars is about life and how it’s not always perfect and when you think it’s impossible to move mountains and you’re at your lowest moment and you think all doors are closed you need to rise up and rise unafraid and move mountains,” Umansky, 53, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, October 24, ahead of the ABC series’ latest episode. “My time was 1996 when Kyle and I got married and Alexia was born.”
Richards, 54, was already the mother of daughter Farrah, 34, whom she shares with ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie, when she met Umansky. The Buying Beverly Hills star recalled the early days of his marriage to Richards as difficult, in part because money was super tight.
“We had Farrah and Alexia. I was 26 when I was fired from my job and was broke,” Umansky recalled. “Kyle was my rock and together we rose up and we rose up 1000 x and we moved mountains a lot of them. It’s been an incredible journey. Tonight’s dance is dedicated to Kyle and my Family.”
Umansky and Richards went on to welcome daughters Sophia, 23, and Portia, 15.
In July, Us Weekly confirmed that Umansky and Richards separated after 27 years of marriage. “Kyle and Mauricio have been separated for a while, but are still currently living together,” a source told Us at the time, noting that the twosome “are amicable while they figure out the next steps.”
The pair later confirmed they “had a rough year” but denied reports that they were divorcing. “We both love and respect each other tremendously,” they added in a joint statement shared via Instagram. “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.”
The trailer for the upcoming season 13 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills primarily focused on the duo’s marital issues, but Umansky told Us earlier this month that he and Richards are still trying to work things out.
“We’re in the middle of dealing with our life and our marriage and we have not thrown in the towel,” he explained. “We are still working on it. And it’s hard and it’s hard in the public eye and it’s hard while everybody’s asking because the reality is that when a couple’s going through the times that we’re going through right now, what you need is time.”
Umansky went on to say that he and Richards “do not know” what the future of their relationship looks like. “We’re not hiding anything,” he continued. “We legitimately do not know what that looks like.”
During the October 10 episode of DWTS, Umansky said that the dramatic RHOBH trailer caused him to mess up his steps in a routine with partner Emma Slater.
“Right before the dance, the trailer for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills came out about my marriage, and my kids were in the [DWTS] audience and I wasn’t addressing it with them,” he told Slater, 34.
After the live show, he told Instagram followers that he “missed a big chunk of my dance but I kept it going and it was really the votes that kept me in it.”
Earlier this week, Umansky raised eyebrows when he was spotted holding hands with Slater after dinner in Beverly Hills in photos obtained by TMZ. The pair were also snapped sharing a laugh before their meal.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
