The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards and pal Morgan Wade looked very chummy during a recent photo op.
In a clip shared via the Instagram account @Facereality16 on Thursday, February 22, Wade, 29, rubbed Richards’ hip while standing with her arm around her. The video was taken as the pair posed for photos together at Richards’ Wednesday, February 21, appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
Fans took to the comments section to speculate that the gesture looked more than friendly.
“Uhhhh …. Morgan’s hand on Kyle’s hip says A LOOOOTTT 👀,” one Instagram user wrote.
Someone else chimed in, “That hip rub looks emotionally fulfilling,” nodding to a season 1 moment of RHOBH when medium Allison DuBois told Richards, 55, that her husband, Mauricio Umansky, would “never emotionally fulfill” her.
Another person put it more bluntly, writing, “Friends don’t rub hips.”
Richards’ friendship with Wade has raised questions since she became close with the country singer in 2022. When Richards’ separation from Umansky made headlines in July 2023, speculation swirled that she and Wade were dating.
While Richards and Wade have both shut down the rumors, they poked fun at the public’s perception of their bond with the August 2023 music video for Wade’s song “Fall in Love With Me.” In the video, the women take a bath together and come close to kissing multiple times.
Wade went on to make several appearances on season 13 of RHOBH, which premiered in October 2023.
“Morgan and I are very close friends, we talk every day,” Richards said during a November 2023 episode. “Morgan is 100 percent herself. No excuses, no apologies and there was something very freeing about that to me. I’m someone who’s always so worried about everything being so together and perfect that I, honestly, was just taken by that.”
Throughout the season, Richards’ costars pressed her about the problems she was seemingly having with Umansky, 53, and her relationship with Wade. Richards felt particularly hurt by Dorit Kemsley bringing up her marital woes on camera.
“I didn’t love being asked about things about my marriage from her, because we’re closer, with the camera that’s this close to my face,” Richards told Entertainment Tonight of Kemsley, 47, earlier this month. “Just watching the season, and some of the things that are said in the interviews, set me back sometimes, because I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m already struggling so much. If you’re my friend, don’t make it more complicated for me.’”
Richards and Kemsley hash out their issues in a teaser for the RHOBH season 13 reunion, part 1 of which airs on Wednesday, February 28.
“You knew that by saying something like that, it was gonna create a bigger problem for me in the media with the whole Morgan situation,” Richards tells Kemsley in the teaser.
Elsewhere in the clip, Andy Cohen asks Richards whether she could “see herself” with Wade. Richards looks caught off guard by the question and does not answer in the trailer.
Part 1 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 reunion airs on Bravo Wednesday, February 28, at 8 p.m. ET.
