Kim Richards Opens Up About Her Beverly Hills Hotel Arrest
The TV reality star says she "drank that night, no excuses."
— -- Kim Richards claims she had one drink on the night of her arrest last April for public intoxication at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
"I drank that night, no excuses," Richards, 51, said in a preview of "Watch What Happens Live" airing today on Bravo. "I stopped focusing on myself. I stopped taking the time for me and going to meetings because I was taking care of other people and stopped taking care of myself."
The "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star said at the time of her arrest her son, Chad Davis, was sick, her ex-husband Monty Brinson was battling cancer (he died in January at age 58) and her co-star Lisa Rinna was accusing her of using drugs and alcohol.
Coming up on three-and-a-half years of sobriety, Richards said she had a glass of wine with a girlfriend two weeks before the Beverly Hills Hotel incident. Then, on the night of the arrest, she had another drink at her daughter Brooke's house.
"I felt horribly guilty and I thought, 'I need to go home,'" Richards told Andy Cohen. "She only lives a block-and-a-half from the hotel, so I left and I realized, ‘Oh, my God. I can't drink and drive. What have I done?' So, I pulled into the hotel and...I went in."
The bar was closing, but Richards insisted on sitting at her usual booth.
"Please, I'm staying. I don't want to drive. I'm scared," Richards said she told an employee at the bar. According to Richards, the employee responded, "If you don't leave we are calling the police."
"I really thought he was joking," she told Cohen. "And he called the police."
Last fall, Richards reached a plea deal of three years probation, 30 days of community labor and 52 weeks of Alcoholics Anonymous sessions. She also agreed to stay away from the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Around the same time, she was arrested at a Target in Van Nuys, California, for allegedly stealing more than $600 in merchandise.
Richards told Cohen she couldn't talk about the incident because it's a "legal matter."
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