Kyle Richards blames herself for all the unwanted media attention Morgan Wade has had to put up with since forming their close friendship last year.
“She’s an artist, you know? She just wants to make music and all of a sudden she was thrust into this like, world of gossip and tabloids and traveling and having paparazzi take pictures of her,” Richards shared during an Amazon Live on Tuesday.
“She just doesn’t like any of that,” the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star added of the country music singer.
Richards, 55, explained that the “Wilder Days” singer, 29, doesn’t like “attention” or being “talked about.”
“She just wants to make music and all of a sudden I had a lot of guilt, you know, that I put her in this position,” Richards further explained.
Richards admitted that she was the one who asked Wade to perform at her suicide awareness event in honor of her late friend Lorene Shea, which subsequently pushed the singer further into the “spotlight.
“She would tell me, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.’ Of course I feel bad because it gave her anxiety, you know?” Richards continued. “Seeing these headlines, and like I said, just thrust into the spotlight brought her anxiety.”
She added, “Like myself, she suffers from anxiety, so I felt terrible to have put her in that position.”
The Bravolebrity confirmed that her close friend has “kind of adjusted” to all the media attention but said it’s “all very new to her” and isn’t “going away.”
Morgan’s performance at the mental health awareness event was captured by Bravo cameras and showcased on Wednesday night’s episode of “RHOBH.”
“She came on as a favor to me because my best friend since I [was] 7 years old passed away. She committed suicide May 1st [2022], and it was a really important event for me,” Richards explained of Shea.
“It was a celebration of life and I just wanted to bring more awareness and have suicide be more of an open conversation because it’s such a taboo topic,” she said.
“So I really wanted to do an important episode to honor Lorene and just to bring light to suicide and what it does to people and help people that are struggling.”
Richards explained that Wade’s music touches on the topic of suicide and the singer knew how much she was struggling after losing Lorene.
“I asked her [to perform] and she said ‘yes,’ she’d be happy to and she came and sang at this event as a favor to me,” she said.
Richards and Wade’s friendship spurred speculation that the duo were romantically involved — causing a media frenzy around their relationship. However, the reality TV personality denied that they are anything more than friends.
The dating gossip started swirling after news broke in July 2023 that the “Halloween Ends” actress and Mauricio Umansky had separated after 27 years of marriage.
The estranged couple share daughters Alexia, 27, Sophia, 23, and Portia, 16.
Richards also has an older daughter Farrah Brittany, 35, whom she welcomed with her first husband, Guraish Aldjufrie.
