Kyle Richards Explains How Her Late Mother Was The Inspiration Behind Her New TV Series American Woman!

As previously reported, Kyle Richards produced new TV series called American Woman, which is inspired by the life of her mother, Kathleen Richards. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star recently opened up about the series and shed more light on what life was actually like for her mom back in the 70's.

After Kathleen found out that her husband had had an extramarital affair, "My mom was all of a sudden suddenly single," Kyle on Megyn Kelly Today. "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.”



“I did not have a conventional life growing up at all,” she continued. “In addition to being a child actor, it was just a very different upbringing. When my mom passed away, I was reflecting on her and I love to write, so I would write stories about her and growing up. I thought, ‘I really want to make this into a TV show one day.’ And here we are.”

Kelly also asked Kyle about how her older sister Kathy Hilton has responded to the series. “I mean, all families go through stuff,” she said. “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.

Transcript courtesy via PEOPLE

Source/Photo Credit: Bravo