Scheana Shay’s Vanderpump Rules costars may have different opinions about her relationship with Rob Valletta, but one thing remains certain: they’re all SUR-prised that the 32-year-old waitress moved on so quickly after filing for divorce from her husband of two years, Mike Shay, in November 2016.
Kristen Doute and Lisa Vanderpump have been openly skeptical about Shay’s budding romance, and now Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney-Schwartz and Stassi Schroeder are weighing in. “Kristen and Lisa don’t really talk to Scheana that often, especially not in the way that I do. By far,” Madix, 32, exclusively tells Us Weekly. “So of course, them expressing concern is them expressing concern from a place where they don’t really know a lot of what they’re talking about.”
The SUR-ver and the model began dating in early January. “I had similar concerns in the beginning. when she and Rob first started seeing each other after the holidays,” Madix continues. “But because I talk to Scheana so often, I really got to hear from her, her process, her mental state and what was really going on with her in her head. She also felt like, ‘Man, this is really quick, but I really like this person. And I don’t see why I would push someone away.’ She’s actually known Rob for like 12 years, it’s not like they just met. So in her mind she’s thinking, ‘Why would I push someone away who I already know pretty well as a friend and I really like? Why not just enjoy this time and try to get back to a happy place?’ And she did get back to a happy place. I was happy for her at that point.”
Although Madix is hopeful that her friend is making the right decision by pursuing a new relationship so soon after her split, Maloney-Schwartz has her doubts. “I’m kind of on the same page as Lisa and Kristen that I understand Scheana wanting to be happy,” Shay’s costar and longtime friend tells Us. “When she reconnected with Rob, she just ran with it. I think maybe she was running from dealing with stuff and her divorce. It’s kind of a big deal … To spend six years with someone and marry them and think you’re going to spend the rest of your life and have children with them. And then everything goes wrong and you end up divorcing. That’s a big deal. And I think she wanted to just focus on being happy at any cost and maybe sort of never dealt with the divorce and having some sort of closure with him.
Maloney-Schwartz adds that Shay’s relationship with Valletta heated up fairly quickly. “She was full-steam ahead with Rob and already talking about wanting to marry him,” Maloney-Shwartz continues. “We’re like, ‘Jesus Christ. This may be a little fast.’ It was hard. We were happy to not see her upset and crying and for her to move on and feel good about herself, but it was a little accelerated if you ask me.”
As for Schroeder? “[Scheana] will get married again before the rest of us, before I even find a boyfriend,” the podcast host, 29, jokes, adding that she thinks her friend remarrying so soon would be premature. “But I’m somebody who … I like alone time, so there’s that … I couldn’t imagine what that would be like to go through a divorce and then one day later be in a full-blown relationship. To me, it doesn’t make sense. But everybody works differently. They announced that they broke up yet they still do everything together. I don’t understand it.”
Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.
