Tom Sandoval is ready to face Vanderpump Rules fans at BravoCon, but he still has some concerns.
“I’m a little nervous about being on the same stage as Ariana [Madix],” Sandoval, 41, told Tom Schwartz during the Thursday, November 2, episode of his “Everybody Loves Tom” podcast ahead of the Las Vegas event.
Sandoval said he is expecting the crowd to have a vastly different reaction to him compared to Ariana, 38, adding, “Because if she comes out it’s like, ‘Yay,’ [or] whatever. Then I come out and people are going to want to show their loyalty to Team Ariana or whatever, and I’m a little nervous about it.”
The former couple will be joined by their costars — including Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney, James Kennedy, Lala Kent and Schwartz, 41 — on Friday, November 3, to address the drama from season 10 of Vanderpump Rules.
When the Bravo series initially debuted new episodes in February, the topic on everyone’s mind was Schwartz’s hookup with Raquel Leviss amid his divorce from Katie, 36. However, things quickly took a turn on and off screen as Raquel’s connection with Sandoval was questioned.
Us Weekly confirmed in March that Sandoval and Ariana had called it quits after nearly a decade of dating due to his infidelity. As a result, cameras captured more footage for a new season finale that included details about the drama. The cast reunited that same month to hash out their issues in a three-part reunion before taking a brief break before season 11.
By the time production started again, Raquel, 29, had entered a mental health facility. Raquel remained focused on her 90-day program in the treatment center as her former coworkers filmed season 11 without her. After leaving the facility, Raquel confirmed that she had no plans to return to Vanderpump Rules.
“Part of the reason why I wanted to take some time away is just because it was so chaotic and loud and there was such vitriol online. But then the other part of the reason why I wanted to go to a treatment facility was to understand my behaviors,” she said on Bethenny Frankel’s “ReWives” podcast in August. “And my goal was to really get down to the bottom of, ‘OK, why am I choosing men that are unavailable? Why do I keep finding myself in unhealthy relationships? What are the things that I need to change about my behavior?’ And in knowing that I needed to make a change, I first had to know what it was that leads to those behaviors.”
Raquel added: “It took me a while to accept, but I learned about love addiction, and it’s a real thing. It’s where you confuse intensity for intimacy. And those chemical changes in the brain are the same chemical changes that happen when you take drugs. So, it is addictive, and it explains why I couldn’t stop seeing this person, but it also doesn’t excuse the fact that it happened. But now I know better.”
Sandoval, meanwhile, returned to the show after the scandal even though most of his costars were not on speaking terms with him. He leaned into the attention by later going on tour with his band, Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras, and making an appearance on Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
The TomTom cofounder seemingly did not film any scenes one-on-one with Ariana, who previously stated she wouldn’t speak with Sandoval again.
“This situation made me realize that I can do hard things. The worst-case scenario literally did happen, and I was OK. Like, look — you can handle what’s thrown at you,” Ariana, who was crowned Us Weekly‘s inaugural Reality Star of the Year, exclusively told Us in October.
Ariana also reflected on how far she has come since joining the series in 2013. “I’ve grown up. I’m somebody who never really wanted to grow up,” she said. “[But] over time, I’ve been able to love myself more and give myself a lot more grace when it comes to things we go through during filming. And that has allowed me to give others more grace.”
