Dorit Kemsley Says She and Kyle Richards Are Doing Better But ‘I Needed There to Be Change’

“My hope was always that Kyle and I will be able to work through our issues and come out the other side,” Kemsley tells PEOPLE

Kyle Richards and Dorit Kemsley. Photo: Paul Archuleta/Getty; Jesse Grant/Getty

Dorit Kemsley is giving an update on where she stands with Kyle Richards.

Going into season 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the reality stars’ friendship was rocky, leaving fans to wonder if they could ever repair it. Now, Kemsley is opening up to PEOPLE about how she is navigating their differences and what viewers can expect from the new season.

“You reach a point where in your life, especially when you decide to publicly separate with your husband after being together for 13 years, married, nine, I had reached a point in my life I started to feel like I was coming into my power,” Kemsley explains. “And my issues with Kyle, they didn’t start at the beginning of the season. They had been going on and I had not voiced [them]. There was a lot of unsaid things on both our parts.”

Dorit Kemsley and Kyle Richards. David Crotty/getty

“I wasn’t about to placate or go into the season or into any conversation with Kyle and not deal with a lot of the things that were bothering me that had transpired over the last year and two years,” she adds.

Kemsley confirms that she and Richards — who are both dealing with separations from their husbands — are in a better place than they were in the season 14 premiere, and she is excited for people to watch that happen.

“I think it’s really great to see the journey as well, because that’s a nice thing,” she notes. “And it’s certainly something that going into the season, my hope was always that Kyle and I will be able to work through our issues and come out the other side. My fear was that we wouldn’t be able to work through our issues the way I needed us to work through them. And I needed there to be change.”

“I need there to be both of us hearing the other one and appreciating what they were saying,” Kemsley continues. “I needed Kyle to accept and take accountability for certain things. And then a friendship that is worth fighting for, which I believe we have, I will fight for. But also I’m a very good friend and I want to feel like I am fighting for a friendship that’s worth fighting for.”

Kyle Richards and Dorit Kemsley.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic, Michael Buckner/WWD via Getty

The premiere showed Richards and Kemsley go head-to-head when they saw each other for the first time since last season’s reunion. When Kemsley confronted Richards about a comment she made saying they were not close friends outside of the show, calling it the “straw the broke the camel’s back”

“I had enough of feeling like I’m tossed around, used, whatever you want, thrown away,” Kemsley said. “[I was] made to feel like I had to reevaluate whether we were even friends.”

“How can you say that?” Richards asked.

The episode ended with “to be continued” after Kemsley said she was “fed up” when Richards questioned where her anger was coming from.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Previous seasons of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills can be streamed on Peacock.