Mauricio Umansky has a complicated relationship with the Hiltons. Here's a timeline of their 3-decade saga.
Mauricio Umansky got his start in real estate working for his brother-in-law, Richard Hilton.
When Umansky left Hilton's firm to start his own, it caused a rift between the two families.
Here's a timeline chronicling their relationship over three decades.
When Mauricio Umansky married Kyle Richards in 1996, he also married into the Hilton family. He quickly went to work for the family business.
Then, in 2011, he stepped out from under the wings of his brother-in-law, Rick Hilton — the husband of Kathy Hilton and grandson of the Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton — to start his own real estate brokerage.
That caused a decadeslong feud between the two families.
Umansky's departure from Hilton & Hyland and his firm's success, along with his tension with the Hiltons, have made headlines and are recurring topics in Season 2 of Umansky's Netflix series, "Selling Beverly Hills."
Keep reading for a breakdown of their complicated relationship.
1993: Rick Hilton and Jeffrey Hyland start a real estate firm named Hilton & Hyland.
The firm began with just five agents and then quickly expanded. By the 2000s, Hilton & Hyland had solidified its position as one of the leading luxury real-estate agencies in Southern California.
Hilton & Hyland are behind some of the biggest real estate transactions in Los Angeles and beyond, including the $150 million sale of the iconic Bel Air mansion from "The Beverly Hillbillies" in 2019.
In 2022, when Hyland died from cancer, Hilton stepped away from his role as co-owner, and full ownership transitioned to Hyland's wife, Lori.
As of 2022, the company had over 140 agents and 12 employees, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
1994: Umansky meets Kyle Richards, Hilton’s sister-in-law, in a New York City nightclub.
After dropping out of the University of Southern California, Umansky moved to New York to pursue a career in the fashion industry, where he founded the clothing company 90265 in 1989.
During a night out in 1994, he met Richards, Hilton's sister-in-law, at Bar One. At that time, she had recently split from her first husband, a real estate broker, People Magazine reported.
1996: Richards and Umansky tie the knot on January 20.
A year into their relationship, Umansky proposed to Richards.
"I was just so happy and excited — it was a dream for me," Richards told The Knot in 2021. "The moment we started dating, I just felt like he was the one."
Richards brought one daughter into the relationship, and a year after their wedding, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child together. (They would later welcome two more children.)
Shortly after the birth of their daughter, Umansky sold his fashion company. After earning his broker's license, he started working at Hilton & Hyland.
He stayed with the firm for 14 years, where he was a top agent. In 2014, Umansky told media company Worth that his biggest sale at Hilton & Hyland was A 25,000-square-foot Beverly Hills property he sold for $42 million.
"I was the No. 1 agent at Hilton & Hyland during the recession of 2008 and was responsible for 20% of their business," Umansky later told luxury marketing organization LuxeSF.
2011: Umansky starts a global boutique real estate brokerage called The Agency, partnering with Billy Rose and Blair Chang.
Though Umansky found success at Hilton & Hyland, his relationship with the agency's founders soured when his request to become a partner and receive equity in the company was denied, motivating him to leave.
In his 2023 memoir "The Dealmaker," Umansky explained how his decision to start his own brokerage ignited tensions between him, Rick, and his sister-in-law Kathy, ultimately damaging their relationship.
"He and Kathy held tremendous anger toward us, which is not the way I choose to live my life," he wrote.
2018: Richards' Paramount show, 'American Woman' worsens the already strained relationship between the families.
By this point, tensions between Umansky and the Hiltons had peaked.
A few years earlier, Richards had publicly revealed, on season 1 of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," or RHOBH, that her sister Kim battled with alcoholism.
Matters escalated further when Richards produced "American Woman," a sitcom about her upbringing and mother. It lead to her estrangement from Kathy for several years.
However, by 2022, when Kathy made her debut on season 11 of RHOBH, it seemed like she and Richards had begun to repair their relationship.
2023: Umansky and Richards marriage is on the rocks
Rumors that Umansky and Richards were separating swirled for months last year.
While they confirmed their split in October 2023, they have not said if they plan to divorce.
In November, Kathy, along with her daughter Paris Hilton, appeared on "Today with Hoda & Jenna" and publicly commented on the separation.
"When I first saw it, it just broke my heart," Hilton told the hosts.
February 2024: Rick Hilton starts a new company called Hilton and Hilton.
Hilton, who stepped away from his position at Hilton & Hyland in 2022, has opened a new brokerage with his son Baron and daughter-in-law Tessa.
The group branded itself an "unconventional global luxury real estate brokerage," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
In season two of "Buying Beverly Hills," Umansky learns that Hilton has attempted to lure one of his top agents, Zach, to join the new brokerage by offering him equity in the company.
Umansky said on the show that the move breached an agreement the two made when he left Hilton & Hyland years ago.
February 2024: The Richards sisters discuss Umansky’s split with the Hilton family on ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.’
In the three-part "RHOBH" Season 13 reunion, Kathy joined her sister, Richards, to discuss the split and the impact the relationship has had on their family.
Umansky "is going one way, she's going one way, and they're both trying to work," she said. "Kyle didn't decide this in three months. This, for sure, I bet she had been thinking and feeling probably the last three [or] four years."
During the episode, Kathy also acknowledged the rift that emerged between her and her sister when Umansky opened The Agency.
"That put Kyle and I in a kind of a funky — and you and [Mauricio] in a bad spot, I would think," Kathy said.
Umansky confirmed that opening his agency negatively impacted Richards' relationship with her sister, her brother-in-law, Rick, and their children in season two of 'Buying Beverly Hills."
"I am Rick's brother-in-law, but unfortunately, it got really sour because it really affected the family — Kyle more than anybody," he said. "You know, her family stopped speaking to her."
March 2024: Paris Hilton calls out Umansky on Instagram for talking about her dad.
Mauricio elaborated on his departure from Hilton & Hyland in season two of "Buying Beverly Hills."
"I think I got kind of f--ked by Hilton & Hyland," Umansky said."I went to Rick and I said 'I'd really like equity and to be a partner. He went back, talked to Jeff, got back to me, and basically I was told no."
The Queen of Bravo Instagram account posted about Mauricio's comments regarding Hilton & Hyland—and Paris Hilton, Rick and Kathy's daughter, left a comment.
"My father is a consummate gentleman and has always taken the higher road," Paris commented. "He would never speak negatively about his family — especially in the press. Frankly we are all sick of him using the Hilton name every chance he gets to plug his lame show. It's enough already."
Umansky addressed Paris' comment in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
"Look, it's sad that she got so upset about that, but at the end of the day, it's two businessmen making two business decisions," Umansky told ET's Brice Sander.
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