Kim Richards' return to the cast of the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" after being fired earlier this year has not come without cost.

Life & Style magazine reports the troubled star was so desperate for a return to the Bravo airwaves she is now "working for free."

"Kim wasn't paid a dime to return to 'RHOBH,'" said a source. "She was desperate to get back on TV to restore her reputation."

Network officials severed ties with her earlier this year following a series of public meltdowns that included her arrest for public intoxication in April and a nasty, drunken standoff with her daughter on her wedding day that left her vowing to never speak to her mom again.

As for the April incident, Richards was taken into custody at the Beverly Hills Hotel after becoming belligerent with officers who asked her to leave the establishment. In addition to public intoxication, she was also charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer after kicking one of the officers.

More recently, the 51-year-old Richards started regularly attending AA meetings and seeing a psychiatrist. Still, friends of hers worry that going back on the show so quickly may not be in her best interest.

Richards, on the other hand, has previously cited all her family related stress as one of the primary causes behind her breakdown.

"Monty, my ex-husband, is very sick and my son wasn't well," she recently said. "And I had to give away my dog, and I wasn't talking to my sister [Kyle Richards]."

Richards was recently released from her latest rehab stint and is professing to anyone who will listen that she loves sobriety and that even her arrest was a blessing in disguise.

"My arrest was my a-ha [moment]," she said. "I thought I get to go away now and rest and take a break from all of this."