Mauricio Umansky explains split with Kyle Richards, talks Emma Slater rumors: 'No infidelity'

Mauricio Umansky says he's holding up to scrutiny of his marriage just fine.

In an interview two days before the return of another reality TV show capturing the challenges of his marriage to reality royal Kyle Richards, Umansky says, “I'm doing great. Life is good, and (it’s) just been a busy, busy week in real estate.”

Umansky, 53, is the founder and CEO of international real estate brokerage The Agency, where his stepdaughter Farrah Aldjufrie and eldest daughter with Richards, Alexia Umansky, work. The listings and personal lives of the agents are at the center of Netflix’s “Buying Beverly Hills." The 10-episode second season (now streaming) launches Sophia Umansky as an intern and shows glimpses of Richards and Umansky’s youngest daughter Portia Umansky.

Reality TV fans first met Mauricio Umansky through Richards, 55, a former child actress who has been a part of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast since its 2010 debut. They married in 1996 and seemed to have an enviable marriage. But People magazine broke news of a rift last summer while “Buying Beverly Hills” was in production.

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In Episode 8 of the new season, Alexia remembers her mom learning of the article as the family set out to go paddleboarding in Aspen, Colorado, where they have a home. “I see my mom look at her phone, and I see her face shift, and I see this kind of panic come over her…” Alexia says. The episode also shows Umansky and Richards discussing when to open up to their daughters about their struggles.

Cameras capture a candid discussion about the separation between Umansky and his eldest — Aldjufrie, Alexia and Sophia — in the season finale.

“I just decided to be completely straight up, open, unfiltered with (my daughters),” Umansky says in an interview. “We've always been close, and we've always been tight. But now the fact that I have made myself a lot more vulnerable has made us even closer.”

Richards attributed the breakdown of their marriage to "things that ... made me lose my trust that I wasn’t about to recover from,” in February’s “Real Housewives” finale. During Tuesday’s Amazon Live she said the possibility of reconciling with Umansky was “too big of a question to answer” on the platform.

Umansky reveals where he and Richards stand today, gives his thoughts on dating again, and addresses rumors about a romance with his “Dancing with the Stars” partner Emma Slater. (Edited for length and clarity.)

Question: Why did you decide not to tell your kids about the split?

Mauricio Umansky: That story came out of left field and caught us all by surprise. We were literally pumping our paddle boards, all getting ready to jump on the river, when all of our phones started buzzing, and everybody started reading the whole thing. That blindsided us. So it's not that we weren't telling our kids; we just weren't ready to tell our kids.

Kyle says on “Real Housewives” that the marriage issues boil down to trust. Do you think it was it one thing, or as they say, death by 1,000 paper cuts?

I haven't seen the reunion, and quite honestly I didn't watch “Housewives” this year. I just didn't want to relive everything and watch them gossip about it. So I'm a little bit at a loss. But I can tell you that I'm proud of our marriage. I call it a success.

Everybody wants a reason. We were kids when we met; we're completely different people today than we were back then. And sometimes you just grow apart. The reality is there's not one reason. It's just life, and life sometimes separates you, and you need to make changes. I wouldn't trade (my marriage) for anything in the world. It was the best. It was amazing. It was incredible. It was a success. And now it's time to do something else at the moment, and we'll see what tomorrow brings.

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Since she brought up trust, some people might assume there was infidelity. Is there anything you want to clear up?

There was no infidelity, and that was not what caused any of that stuff. Everybody knows she's a jealous person. Neither of us did anything that makes us hate each other. We still love each other.

Kyle said that it hurt to see you holding hands with Emma Slater. Was there a romance? Do you have regrets about holding her hand?

If you look at the photos, we're actually not holding hands, which is quite funny. They try to make it look like we are, but we're actually not. We were dancing together for 12 weeks. She's become a very close friend of mine, and that's it. We danced together through a period that was difficult, and we had a great time.

We see you meditating on this season of “Buying Beverly Hills.” How are you taking care of yourself? What do you want for your future?

I'm enjoying the journey, and I can tell you that I meditate a lot. I'm all about mindset. I've got a lot of stuff going on in my head right now. The real-estate business could not be tougher, from the markets and the high interest rates. We have 110 offices around the world, and we're growing and trying to figure out what that looks like.

I'm obviously, at the same time, navigating a separation and learning what to do with that. I have not been running around dating. I am not interested in being a playboy. One of these days I'm going to start dating, I can tell you that for sure. But I can tell you that up 'til today I have really enjoyed getting to know myself again as this new man and knowing and finding out where that's going to take me.