'RHOBH' Star Kim Richards 'Says No to Rehab' for Now: Source

After last week's arrest for public intoxication, Richards's friends and family want her to go to rehab, but she is holding off

Photo: Michael Larsen/Bravo/NBC/Getty

Despite concern about her sobriety and her arrest last week for public intoxication, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards is holding off going to rehab right now, a longtime family friend tells PEOPLE.

“As of now, she is saying no to rehab,” says the friend. “People are trying to get her to go. A lot of people are worried about her.”

Richards, 50, was arrested early Thursday morning after officers responded to “a report of a possible fight” at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel at around 1:30 a.m.

At the time of her arrest, she “was displaying symptoms of alcohol intoxication including slurred speech and belligerent insolent behavior cursing at the officers and passively resisted arrest,” according to a statement from the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Richards has “calmed down” since the arrest, says the friend. “When it first happened, she was upset and didn t want to talk about it. Now she does.”

The friend adds: “She is very embarrassed.”

On the night of the arrest, the former child star was “distraught” after watching the RHOBH reunion, which showed her arguing with her sister Kyle Richards, says the friend.

“But a big part of all of this is that she is just stressed out,” says the friend.

Richards’s ex-husband, Monty Brinson, the father of her daughter, Brooke, is battling Stage IV cancer.

“She is under a lot of pressure, especially because of Monty.”

Richards previously spent time in a treatment facility for alcohol abuse in 2011 and has insisted on episodes of RHOBH that she’s been sober ever since.

But Richards may not have a say in whether or not she returns to rehab, says the friend: “She could be forced to go under court order.”

“I have a feeling that she might wind up checking herself in,” the source adds. “People who care for her hope she checks in.”

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