Mauricio Umansky is shedding some light on the personal reasons behind his recent mess-up on Dancing With the Stars.
“Right before the dance, the trailer for the [upcoming season of] Real Housewives of Beverly Hills came out about my marriage, and my kids were in the [Dancing With the Stars] audience and I wasn’t addressing it with them,” Umansky, 53, told partner Emma Slater during the Tuesday, October 10, episode of the reality competition series, referring to his separation from wife Kyle Richards.
One week prior, during the October 3 episode of DWTS, Umansky and Slater, 34, began improvising halfway through their salsa routine after Umansky lost his place in the choreography. “I missed a big chunk of my dance but I kept it going and it was really the votes that kept me in it,” he told fans via Instagram after the live show.
The routine mishap came the same day that the season 13 trailer for RHOBH dropped. In the teaser, several of Richards’ costars questioned the state of her marriage to Umansky.
“If there was infidelity [in your marriage], would you stay?” Garcelle Beauvais asked, to which Richards, 54, replied, “I don’t know.”
The trailer also addressed speculation surrounding Richards’ friendship with country singer Morgan Wade — and showed Richards tattooing the letter “K” for Kyle on Wade’s body.
“You put the first letter of your name on her body. What is going on, Kyle?” Dorit Kemsley asked her costar. In response, Richards simply shrugged.
Us Weekly confirmed in July that Richards and Umansky had hit a rough patch after 27 years of marriage. The pair — who share daughters Alexia, 27, Sophia, 23, and Portia, 15 — later released a joint statement via Instagram, confirming their marital woes but noting that they are not divorcing.
“We have had a rough year. The most challenging one of our marriage,” they wrote at the time. “But we both love and respect each other tremendously. There has been no wrongdoing on anyone’s part. Although we are in the public eye, we ask to be able to work through our issues privately.”
Umansky has been candid about how DWTS has helped him cope with the problems in his marriage.
“I feel like I’m 15 years old having the time of my life and it’s been really good for me to be dancing and to be dealing with all the stress of everything I’m going through,” he told TMZ in September, noting that the show has been “super therapeutic” for him. “It could not have come at a better time.”
After losing his footing during the October 3 episode of DWTS, Umansky redeemed himself in the judges’ eyes on October 10.
“Now I know why last week was so frustrating for you because you can dance like that. … You are very smooth,” Carrie Ann Inaba told the real estate broker. “It was just jam-packed with elegance. … Sell me some real estate. I’m not flirting, I’m just talking.”
Derek Hough added that the Umansky and Slater’s Foxtrot was a “massive improvement” compared to the previous week.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
