'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star Kyle Richards says she knew Crystal Kung Minkoff was dropped by 14 friends and it's a 'red flag'

• Kyle Richards said she already knew about Crystal Kung Minkoff losing 14 friends.
• Minkoff's off-camera friend drama was brought up in "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" season 12.

"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" has been embroiled in mystery this season as the housewives allude to the cast member Crystal Kung Minkoff losing 14 friends in a different friend group.

Now, the original "Beverly Hills" housewife Kyle Richards told Insider that she, too, had heard the gossip going around Beverly Hills — and why she thought it's a "bit of a red flag."

Minkoff's friendship woes came up in episode six of season 12 when Lisa Rinna said during her confessional: "Crystal has told me that she had a falling out with, like, 14 of her friends. I mean, it's a lot to be dropped by 14 friends. I don't even have fucking 14 friends."

In the same episode, during a tense dinner-table showdown, Sutton Stracke said Minkoff had a "reputation" for falling out with her friends, and Rinna reiterated that she'd heard scuttlebutt about Minkoff around town.

"I heard about it because I know some of those people — a lot of them, actually," Richards exclusively told Insider this week. "So I'd heard about it, but I thought you never know why. I always give the benefit of the doubt. It's a little bit of a red flag."

Minkoff's past friendship troubles were brought up this season as she again clashed with Stracke over their Lake Tahoe argument about race in season 11.

Though the pair had seemingly moved on from the Tahoe trip and became friends, this season, Minkoff claimed that Stracke had said something else that was "very dark" during the trip that didn't initially make the air, which led to speculation about Stracke's character.

In a flashback from the previous season, Stracke can be seen explaining her approach to bringing up her daughter in a multicultural environment, telling Minkoff: "My white child, a Black girl is in there, a Chinese girl was in this Jacuzzi, and I'm like, 'This is what it should be.'"

Minkoff said she felt the comments were "problematic," but the other housewives, including Garcelle Beauvais, didn't find Stracke's remarks as "dark" as Minkoff claimed.

"It's not like she said something so horrible. I was like, 'Is there something else?'" Beauvais told Minkoff in season 12, episode five. "Because that doesn't seem 'dark' to me. It doesn't seem as dark as you made it out to be."

Minkoff then asked Beauvais whether she thought Stracke's comments were "problematic," to which Beauvais replied: "No. What we're all taking offense to is the fact that you alluded to it being really, really bad that could hurt her reputation."

Richards told Insider that Minkoff alluding to Stracke saying something "dark" reminded her of the gossip she had heard around Beverly Hills.

"I was like, 'This is kind of like the same thing that I was hearing from these people,' which is why I was a little more vocal about what she was doing. I was like, 'Yeah, this is not the first time you're doing this,'" Richards said.

In a June interview with Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live," Minkoff appeared to double down on her claims about Stracke saying something "problematic."

She said, "That story wasn't problematic," hinting that Stracke said something else that she took offense with.

Richards added to Insider: "It's so funny — she went on 'Watch What Happens Live' and said it was something way worse — and I'm like, now you're doing it again. Trust me, if there was something worse, they would have used it. They don't do us any favors on 'Housewives.'"

For her part, Minkoff said in an Instagram story recently that, in the end, she only fell out with three friends and that "the rest came back and apologized."

"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" airs Wednesdays on Bravo in the US and is available to stream on Hayu in the UK and elsewhere the next day.