Kyle Richards Opens Up About Her Late Mother: "Women Weren't Supposed to be Like That"

American Woman, the TV series that Kyle Richards produced, was loosely inspired by the life of her mother, Kathleen Richards. And when chatting about the series on Megyn Kelly Today, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills boutique owner shed more light on what life was actually like for her mom. 

After Kathleen found out that her husband had had an extramarital affair, "My mom was all of a sudden suddenly single," Kyle shared. "She didn’t know about money or what they had — she didn’t even have a checkbook. So when I was actually 10 years old, my mom got me a checkbook and I was allowed to have my ‘unemployment checks’ from my TV shows.”

Kyle added: "She opened a checking account for me. She wanted me to take control and learn from a young age how to look after myself, because she didn’t like finding herself in that position in the ’70s … It’s not easy being a single mom, whether you’re in the ’70s or today!"

The RHOBH boutique owner also gave her mom a shout-out for being ahead of her time. "My mom was a very strong, outspoken woman and in that time, women weren’t supposed to be like that,” she said. “Now it’s like, ‘boss lady’ — that’s a term now. But in the ’70s, if you were strong and opinionated and outspoken, it was looked down upon. And my mom was that woman — very strong.”

Kelly also asked Kyle about how her older sister Kathy Hilton has responded to the series. "We’re sisters, we love each other. She hasn’t seen the show, so I’m excited for her to see it. It is inspired by [our childhood], it’s not autobiographical, so she’ll see that,” Kyle said. 

Previously, Kyle spoke to Andy Cohen about her relationship with Kathy (clip above). At the RHOBH Season 8 reunion, Kyle shared that things with Kathy were "not great," but that she had hope for resolution.