Bravo is currently deep in reunion mode. Just one day after the final Vanderpump Rules season 5 reunion chapter, the network gave us part 2 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion. Where Pump Rules brought out contoured human lightning rod Lala Kent for an extra dose of get-together drama, RHOBH dragged out real househusband Paul "P.K." Kemsley of Pantygate fame.
P.K.’s lengthy, shady, uncomfortable appearance made the point once and for all: husbands should stay as far away from Housewife drama as possible. There’s a reason this show isn’t called the Real Househumans Of Beverly Hills.
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Dorit Kemsley’s partner had a major role in RHOBH season 7 tensions, as he’s the man who looked up Erika Jayne’s skirt when she wasn’t wearing underwear at a dinner party. The wardrobe malfunction eventually snowballed into An Entire Thing, with P.K. telling his wife he "didn’t mind the view" and later making disgusting comments about Erika in the season 7 finale "Diamonds Under Pressure."
P.K. came out to discuss his insulting behavior in part 1 of the reunion, and, yet, he was still on the couch for part 2.
During the the music managers relentless on-stage residency, Erika reveals she wanted P.K. to apologize to her husband Tom Girardi for staring at her vagina and then bashing it with multiple people. While Tom definitely isn't in charge of Erika’s body, the Kemsleys did put a potential strain on the Girardis’ marriage with all their gossip and slut shaming — that’s worth apologizing for.
P.K. refuses any such thing, telling Erika, "I don’t owe Tom an apology. If the circumstances were reversed, he wouldn’t owe me one. I owe you an apology for the joke I made. I didn’t do anything against Tom." This is especially hypocritical since Mr. Kemsley has been attacking Erika on his wife’s behalf since the beginning of time, yet, when the dance pop singer requests some respect for her own husband, she’s wrong.
Despite P.K.’s admission he made a bad "joke" about Erika’s vagina, he completely backtracks his statement moments later to a place where he’s the victim. "I’ve been so punished for that joke, I know it was self-induced, but since then I’ve listened to [Lisa] Rinna call me a pervert and say, ‘Ew.' I’ve listened to Eileen [Davidson] suggest I’m some sort of creep," he bemoans. "I just made a bad joke, that’s all I did."
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What P.K. is missing about this is that’s the reaction you get when you make multiple comments about a woman’s friend’s genitals on camera. If Dorit’s husband had stayed out of Housewife drama in the first place, no one would ever want to discuss him. Take Kyle Richards’s wonderful husband Mauricio Umansky or Rinna’s spouse Harry Hamlin. Both men have made it their business to stay out of the Bravo fray, so no one is branding them a leering Tom. P.K., on the other hand, was lurking around the big finale argument for quite some time until Erika finally called him over from the shadows to deal with him face-to-face.
Erika even calls P.K. on this fact, telling the Brit — who claims to be very busy — at one point, "You have enough time to be here, though. My husband doesn’t… Are you going to hold a diamond [in the RHOBH intro] next year?"
Not only do all of P.K.’s comments of this past season eventually devolve into desperate grab to turn the businessman into a Bravolebrity in his own right, everything also drips with misogyny.
The father of two alleges he’s sucking up camera time to protect his wife, but Dorit is an adult woman. She joined the show knowing what to expect from an Andy Cohen production and doesn’t need a knight in shining armor to speak up for her. No one else has one of those. And when P.K. tells Erika she’s "inherently cold," it sounds just like some strange man on the street telling a woman, "Smile, you’ll look prettier."
If Dorit does return to RHOBH for season 8, let's hope she keeps P.K. and his bad "jokes" off camera.