Business is thicker than blood and family ties.
Mauricio Umansky says Rick and Kathy Hilton were distraught with him and his wife, Kyle Richards after he left Rick’s company to start The Agency. “He and Kathy were very angry with us, which is not how I want to live my life,” the real estate broker wrote in his new book, “The Dealmaker.”
Of course, Kyle was hurt by how they treated her, and it was hard for her to take.” The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star’s husband left his brother-in-law’s real estate firm, Hilton & Hyland because he wanted to become a full partner.
Rick supposedly told him, “No, we’re not doing that.” He continued, “So I went home to Kyle and told her what had happened. She agreed that it was a very unfair thing to do. But in the end, what we thought didn’t matter. Rick wasn’t going to change his mind, and he wasn’t going to pay me what I was owed, in my opinion.”
Umansky said he would have stayed if they had paid him his worth, made him a partner, and shown him some professional love. “From their side,” he wrote, “they didn’t see it that way. They didn’t understand how I could decide something so quickly and not give them a chance to change my mind.”
The Bravolebrity said Rick seemed to be okay with it initially, but he later found out that wasn’t the case. “So, again, from my point of view, there’s never been any bad blood between The Agency and Hilton & Hyland,” Umansky said.
“I didn’t expect Rick to stop talking to me, Kyle, and our whole family after he had thought more about my departure. Kyle’s sister Kathy, who was married to him, did the same.” Umansky further stated that he doesn’t know what started the fight other than that Rick may have been afraid that Umansky would steal his business.
He wrote, “They stopped talking to us and inviting us to Thanksgiving dinners and other holidays. I would never have taken a client from Rick, even if he didn’t think my intentions were good.” Umansky also said he has never hired an agent from Hilton & Hyland because “he wants to keep the family dynamic intact for Kyle, my kids, their cousins, for all of us.”
Even though The Agency caused family problems, Umansky said Richards was 100% behind the decision and thought he was completely justified. “But, again, Kyle was always there for me, just like she has been the whole time we’ve been together,” he praised. “She’s not only my wife; she’s also my best friend.”
Since 2011, when Umansky opened The Agency, Kyle and Kathy have had a problematic relationship. They were able to get along again a few years ago, but they had a fight in the last season of “RHOBH” and still don’t talk to each other. In “The Dealmaker,” Umansky details the mogul’s real estate deals, his life in the public eye, and his family.