“It was definitely not your traditional Thanksgiving situation,” Ms. Richards said. Looking back on their relationship, she said she couldn’t have imagined the direction their lives would take: “When I married Charlie, he had been sober for four years, he was in a very different place in his life.” But she’d rather not dwell on the subject.

While Ms. Richards has been working for nearly 30 years, and has appeared in films like “Starship Troopers,” “Wild Things” and “The World Is Not Enough,” she hasn’t appeared in many big-budget movies. Asked whether she thought there was a reason for that, personal or otherwise, she said: “I think there’s different choices,” and that there’s “nothing I would want to talk about publicly.”

“Choices were made, and that’s something that I would not want to bring up years later,” she added.

And anyway, she is just grateful to still be working. She recently starred in the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” and has other shows and a feature film coming down the pipeline.

“Of course, would I love to do a big blockbuster movie or do movies that you get recognized for doing?” she said. “I would’ve loved to do some of those roles too. But, I feel very grateful and blessed that I’m able to continue working. I’m not 25, so to be able to still maintain and make a living my whole career, is something that I’m very grateful for.”

Ms. Richards recently shot the highly anticipated “Housewives” reunion, which began airing earlier this month. She was excited for her first reunion, which shocked the other Housewives. “I love seeing everyone, and I love our crew,” she said. “I’ve missed filming with the crew.”

In some ways, the end-of-season rite asked more of the women than the show itself: Ms. Richards said she was picked up at 6 a.m. to go to the set and didn’t leave until 9 p.m. She said she had to sit in heels and a gown all day with breaks only for the bathroom. The producers told her it was “the longest taping ever.”

So … will she be coming back for Season 10?

“I would definitely go back if they officially tell us that we can,” she said.