Kim Richards: I Was 'Ashamed' to Admit I Was Drinking Again at 'RHOBH' Reunion

Kim Richards came clean about her ongoing battle with alcoholism Tuesday, telling Dr. Phil McGraw that she was driven to drink because she was upset about being estranged from her family.

And she admitted that the night of her arrest earlier this month wasn’t the first time she’d broken her sobriety – despite her denials at The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion.

“I did have drinks a couple other times over the past few months. It was wine. I was ashamed to say anything at the reunion, embarrassed,” the reality star said in the interview, which was filmed before she checked into rehab and aired Tuesday. “I would have loved to say to the girls, ‘You know what, you’re right,’ but the way they were coming at me, they didn’t make it easy.”

Richards, 50, said she had not seen the most recent season – or read fans’ comments about her on Twitter – until the day before she was arrested.

“I have not drank once this season on camera. Not one time,” she said. “At that point, I was not lying. I had not drank in over three years. Every one of them had come to me and told me Lisa Rinna was talking behind my back. That is none of her business.”

But what hurt the most, she said, was the drama between her and younger sister Kyle Richards, which only escalated after her pit bull bit Kyle’s daughter Alexia, forcing her to undergo surgery.

“It isn’t the blog or the season that upset me. It was the relationship between my sister and my niece that’s been destroyed,” she said, crying. “But the bottom line is, it’s the overall outcome of where today is with my relationships with the people I love the most, and that’s what really started getting me upset.”

Richards was arrested April 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel for public intoxication, trespassing, resisting an officer and battery on a police officer. She’s due in court May 10.

Richards insisted she only drank a glass (about 2 in.) of vodka at daughter Brooke’s house before driving the hotel.

“I was scared, and I was intoxicated, so everything’s magnified,” she said. “I poured one drink, but maybe it was bigger than I thought.”

As for the battery charge, “Maybe I did kick him,” she said. “I don’t know.

Throughout the fifth season of RHOBH, Richards’ alleged sobriety was the source of drama, causing the former child star to lash out at Kyle, Rinna and Eileen Davidson.

But after her arrest, the ladies wished their friend the best on social media, sending Tweets of support.

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