After the 2022 People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton was slammed on social media as rude for reapplying her lipstick onstage during actor Mariska Hargitay’s heartfelt acceptance speech.
Hargitay was accepting the award for Drama TV Star of 2022 for her role as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In her impassioned speech, the star called for “kindness, compassion, and courage.”
Meanwhile, Hilton was caught on camera in the background, sighing and rummaging around in her designer purse.
The socialite, 63, then applied another coat of her glossy pink lipstick, wiped her mouth, and smacked her lips.
On social media, PCA viewers slammed the move as “classless” and Hilton as “self-absorbed.”
But the reality star has finally broken her silence on the viral moment, telling Extra she had been about to sneeze.
“I actually thought I was going to sneeze,” Hilton confessed, adding, “you don’t want to hear me sneeze.”
Kathy Hilton explains ‘rude’ PCA behavior: ‘I feel terrible’
“I was looking for a tissue,” the reality star explained. “I got nervous and just put some lipstick on and it was during her speech so I thought, ‘The camera isn’t going to be focused on me.’”
Hilton said she had reached out to Hargitay privately via DM to offer an apology.
“I adore and I respect Mariska very much,” the Bravo star said, adding that she felt “terrible” about the incident.
RHOBH cast share details of ‘most awkward’ PCAs
Most of the RHOBH cast was in attendance because the Bravo franchise had been nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Reality Show of the year. The award ultimately went to The Kardashians.
But the night wasn’t a total wash, as Hilton also revealed that she had managed to bury the hatchet with some of her RHOBH castmates.
As co-star Sutton Stracke also confirmed, Hilton was seated for the event next to nemesis Lisa Rinna, whom she has called a “bully” in the past.
“We sat next to each other, talked, I was fine,” Hilton said of the encounter.
Hilton also shared that it was “great to see” her half-sister and RHOBH co-star Kyle Richards, adding, “hopefully we will reunite during the holidays.”
The RHOBH franchise usually starts filming in the fall, but Bravo boss Andy Cohen recently revealed that production on the new season would begin in the new year after a “little break.”
As for whether Hilton will return for the new season, the socialite wouldn’t quite say. “First, you have to be asked,” Hilton told reporters, but added, “If that happens, I think so.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is currently on hiatus.