Paul “PK” Kemsley is still struggling to understand certain aspects of wife Dorit Kemsley’s PTSD after she survived a home invasion.
“There are elements I understand. There are also elements that I don’t consider are PTSD –– I don’t. I consider they’re more obnoxious,” PK told Dorit on Wednesday’s episode of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
The couple sat down with a therapist to discuss the “severity” of Dorit’s PTSD when PK asked, “The reality is, when does high maintenance blend with PTSD?”
“When I first met Dorit, she was this bubbly, enthusiastic, beautiful girl, and she was not quite as high maintenance as she is now,” PK added in a confessional.
Meanwhile, Dorit said in her own confessional that she used to love how “he could let go of things so easily,” but over the “last few years, he’s definitely gotten more harsh with me, a little mean sometimes.”
After Dorit, 47, called him out for “reaching,” PK, 56, denied that he was doing so and claimed he was just “trying to understand” what his wife is going through.
“We’re talking about specifically certain triggers,” Dorit said. “It’s like I’m a totally new person, and I can’t do anything about it. Do you have any idea how difficult that is, and what it’s like to live with that?”
Dorit confessed that she’s struggled with PK not being there for her both physically and emotionally since the home invasion, and she wants him to “comfort” her more if she’s “having an episode.”
“In a marriage, these are the times that truly test your relationship,” Dorit said in a confessional. “This particular bad time where I need PK, and it’s not the other way around, he’s coming up really short.”
However, in his own confessional, PK discussed the “pressures” of managing the different aspects of his life, and while he may not always “balance it as well as I should,” it’s not a “one-sided thing.”
“We need to keep each other happy, and we need to sometimes be wrong, which has always been a challenge for Dorit,” he continued in the confessional.
While talking with his wife and her therapist, PK began to get emotional asking Dorit to “give me a chance to understand” the PTSD and “articulate it just a little bit calmer and a little bit less irritated” by his questioning.
“I’m not seeking to irritate you, I’m seeking to understand you,” he told Dorit. “It makes me emotional, because you know I’m OK with it. It’s very difficult when you love someone, to listen to how much pain you’re in.”
Dorit went over to comfort her beau, but she emphasized in a confessional that she still needs him to “want to be there for me” in order for them to “succeed,” and if he can’t she doesn’t know “what the future holds.”
The couple’s candid conversation came a few months before they had to publicly deny they were separating but also fessed up to having “challenging years” in their marriage.
“We remain committed to working through these issues as a united couple for our family,” they told People in October.
“We are focused on healing, making changes and doing the things that many couples have to do at some point in their marriage. … We are doing what we can to focus on the best interests of our family.”
Dorit has previously discussed how their marriage was affected following her not receiving the support she needed after suffering a traumatic armed home invasion in 2021.
