The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been dominated by Denise Richards’ cheating scandal.
But Kyle says that Denise’s alleged lies go further than that — that no one has gotten to see the real Denise.
"What exactly do Brandi Glanville’s text messages prove?" producers ask on the After Show for last week’s episode.
"When someone says something," Dorit begins, "until you get all of the facts, you really do, sort of, believe what you hear."
She explains: "You give them the benefit of the doubt."
"So at this point," Dorit reasons, "we’d only heard from Denise’s side."
"And what Brandi had said via Teddi," she continues, "and then obviously what Denise was saying."
Dorit explains: "So when she says that she’s not friends with her … I mean, I didn’t know anything from Adam. I didn’t know anything different."
Dorit also acknowledges that Denise was "very supportive" during PuppyGate.
"And I felt really grateful," Dorit reflects, "for her friendship and her support."
"I really feel like I need to give the benefit of the doubt," she admits, sharing that she doesn’t understand how anyone could "deny it like that" if it’s true.
"Only really do we find out at the baby shower," Dorit notes, "that they have this, you know, year-long correspondence."
We are then reminded through a flashback of the mountain of text-based evidence that Brandi brought to dinner.
If the volume of that has escaped your memory, here is the video:
"When Brandi showed us her phone," Erika reflects at the After Show, "you could clearly see there was a friendship."
"There was a history of communication there," she acknowledges.
As Erika noted during the episode itself, the content of the messages really didn’t matter as much as the scope of them.
Teddi chimes in: "To me, it wasn’t a huge shock or an aha! moment."
She emphasizes that it was simple confirmation of what she already knew — that they had a friendship.
As many of the Housewives have reiterated, Denise’s sex life isn’t their business, but her behavior and her lies warranted discussion.
"Listen," Kyle says, "it’s none of our business, none of ours."
"As Teddi says … they’re communicating," she adds. "The denial of knowing her at all just made no sense."
"Actually," she remarks, "everything made sense after that."
"Well, I think it’s the same thing that we were all feeling," Kyle observes.
"That we were getting this censored version of Denise," she opines. "This presenting to you what she wants people to see Denise."
"Instead of being genuine and open and being able to have an authentic friendship," Kyle concludes.
Fame means that people are going to look into your personal life more than they would a non-public figure.
Reality TV fame means that there is a certain expectation — sometimes, even on a contractual level — that you open up to some degree.
There are obviously limits on how much becomes other people’s business, but any Housewife should be prepared for something to blow wide open.
The alleged affair with Brandi is sort of beside the point for the Housewives at this point.
As we have seen, the season finale will include Lisa Rinna having a direct confrontation with Denise over her lies.
When you look a friend in the eyes, lie, and make them cry for having doubted you, they’re not going to be happy when your lies are uncovered.