Kyle Richards is not here for fans body shaming Kesha.
“I do not understand that,” Richards, 55, told TMZ on Monday, July 8, when asked her feelings on Kesha, 37, receiving hate from online trolls about her body. “It’s 2024 and she’s gorgeous. And she’s even more beautiful on the inside.”
Richards added that she’s not sure why this is a conversation. “I don’t know why people are still talking about women’s bodies. It’s 2024, they need to move on,” she said.
When the TMZ reporter mentioned fellow Real Housewife Teresa Giudice being caught up in photoshopping controversy, Richards claimed she doesn’t know “anything about that,” adding, “But, I think everybody needs to just worry about themselves.”
Richards concluded by encouraging “people to be a lot kinder.”
One day before the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star’s comments, Kesha hit back at critics of her body in a lengthy post shared via social media.
“I didn’t think in 2024 people still body shamed but … i am so proud of my body,” Kesha wrote via X on Sunday, July 7. “She’s been through a lot. She’s torn her ACL on stage and finished the show. She’s held my f–king broken heart together.”
Kesha concluded her post with a message to body shamers. “To those who think you’re shaming me, you’re actually making me feel very powerful. So, to you, I hope you one day feel whole enough to not tear other women down. In the mean time, hate me harder bitch.”
Kesha included a smiley face and a bicep emoji in her post. She also accompanied her upload with two bikini photos. In one image, she arched her back as she laid on the ground and looked at the sky, while in another, she posed while wearing a baseball cap.
Kesha has been candid about her body through the years, opening up about her recovery from an eating disorder.
“Finally I was like, ‘F–k. This. S–t. F–k this s–t. I’m hungry!’ And I am so anxious that I feel like I’m going to explode from all the secrets,” she recalled during a 2017 Rolling Stone profile. “All the secret times I’m pretending to eat or other times I’m purging, and I’m trying to not let anybody know. And I’m just f–king sick of this s—t. And I remember just shaking because I was so fed up, so anxious, and I was just mad that I had let myself get to that point.”
Years later, Kesha noted that her health and well-being is at the top of her priority list — even when she’s on tour.
“I always have three meal breaks, ’cause being in recovery, I need to have time to sit and have a meal,” she told Self in August 2023. “I have about 30 minutes before I go on stage where I meditate, stretch and do breathing exercises. People probably think I’m back there doing shots, and [my routine is] the most zen s–t you’ve ever seen.”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at +1 (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.