Paul “PK” Kemsley addressed estranged wife Dorit Kemsley‘s claim that he’s a “full-blown alcoholic” while appearing on a podcast this week.
After Dorit, 48, suggested that PK’s alcoholism contributed to their separation on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premiere earlier this month, PK, 57, set the record straight about his addiction struggles, noting that he’s one-year sober and proud of his recovery as he shaded Dorit’s allegations regarding their breakup.
“I was shocked, disappointed, and upset [about] what Dorit had to say,” PK admitted on Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast, via Bye Wig Hello Drama on X. “I’m really proud and public about my sobriety and I’m 12 months and two weeks [sober].”
According to PK, he made the decision to speak publicly about his alcoholism to inspire others, even though he described his journey as one of the most emotional and “toughest” ones he’d taken.
He then noted that Dorit didn’t understand his sobriety.
“Dorit’s lack of understanding about sobriety is not her fault. She hasn’t invested in it, and it’s not something, you know, she hasn’t worked a program and hasn’t done what I’ve done. So there is no fully blown alcoholic. You’re either an alcoholic or you’re not,” he explained. “Obviously, my alcoholism had an element of responsibility in relation to the breakdown of our marriage. But that was just a component.”
“If you understand the disease, alcoholism is a symptom. It’s not a cause. So the reality is you have to get to what the cause was underneath. So it’s just not as simple as to say, ‘He was a fully blown alcoholic. That’s why we’re separated,’” he added.
Looking back at the premiere episode of RHOBH, PK said it was “emotionally difficult” to watch.
“Dorit spoke of bankruptcies, gambling debts, DUIs, and that she stood by me. I mean, it’s not exactly true. The bankruptcy and all the gambling debts were well before I met her, and then the thing for me, because I’ve recovered, from all of the things that have happened in my extraordinary career, I’ve recovered from anything. I haven’t gambled since 2008. I don’t drink. The bankruptcy was 2010, [2009] … all of that was past, past history,” he continued. “Dorit is on TV talking about the darkest times in my life and suggesting that she held my hand through them, it’s difficult to watch sometimes, particularly when she wasn’t with me when it happened.”
At the time they agreed to separate in May of this year, PK said he’d made the decision to split because he’d noticed that Dorit was “emotionally distraught” and “unhappy.”
“It was the all-time low and I’d said, ‘This isn’t working and we need some time apart,'” he recalled.
Speaking again of Dorit’s claim of him being a “full-blown alcoholic,” PK clarified, “I’m in full-blown recovery.”
“That’s the term: ‘full blown.’ That’s where it should be used,” he explained. “So I did struggle with the first episode, but I’m not angry. I’m just sad to watch it. I never thought that us two, who are the tightest couple in the f*cking world, would ever be in a position where I’m watching this woman I love, the mother of my kids, talking negatively about me on a TV show. It’s just unusual. It’s an unusual concept.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 14 airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
