After Lisa Vanderpump raised concerns about Tom Sandoval‘s mental health, Ariana Madix believes the SUR boss should be the one helping him find professional help.
“That is something that if someone has concerns, they should seek professional help for someone,” Ariana, 38, said on the Tuesday, February 20 episode of the Vanderpump Rules After Show. “That is the route that should be taken. Like, if he’s not going to seek professional help for himself, then if Lisa is concerned, instead of putting it on Scheana [Shay] and Lala [Kent], she should find professional help for him. Because I think that ultimately Scheana and Lala are not equipped and should not be carrying that.”
Her comments came after Lisa, 63, expressed concern about Sandoval’s depression after his affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss went public, ending his 9-year relationship with Ariana. Sandoval told Lisa that he’d been suicidal, and she went to Scheana, 38, and Lala, 33, to get them to pave the way for peace within the Vanderpump Rules cast.
“I just don’t want him to do something and for it to be too late,” Scheana said of Sandoval during Tuesday’s Pump Rules. Her husband, Brock Davies, questioned why Lisa asked Scheana to be the one to encourage everyone to treat Sandoval differently.
“It’s not fair that this got put on you because it put you against the wall,” Brock, 32, noted. “What are you going to do? Say someone’s mental health isn’t OK?”
Lala, meanwhile, told cameras that she “never gave” Sandoval’s state of mind “much thought” previously, but holding onto negative feelings didn’t benefit her. “I have been holding on to a lot of anger,” she noted. “I don’t trust anybody and it is just not healthy. I don’t want to be angry all the time. It is truly killing me.”
On Tuesday’s Vanderpump Rules After Show, Scheana revealed that her response to Sandoval’s depression stemmed from her past trauma after a friend died by suicide.
“As someone who lost someone close to them to suicide many years ago, that hit home for me because I had spoke to this person a few days before and I didn’t realize the way that they were reaching out to me, just saying how depressed they were,” Scheana said. “And my response was like, well, maybe you should look at, like, some of your choices. That’s something that for many years weighed heavy on me. So when Lisa said this, I was just like, ‘I don’t ever want to feel that way again.’ I don’t ever want to feel like my words could be responsible for someone being pushed over the edge.”
Scheana added that while she wanted to help, she felt conflicted about melting the ice between her and Sandoval due to her friendship with Ariana. “I took a lot of weight with what [Lisa] said,” she explained. “But at the same time I didn’t know what to do with that information because I’m not just going to welcome him back and be like, ‘We’re best friends again.’ That’s not going to happen. Too much has happened, but I feel like in that moment I needed to stop projecting so much anger and hatred because it also wasn’t healthy for me.”
While Scheana agreed to “soften” her attitude, she said Sandoval still isn’t totally welcome back within their friend group.
Ariana wasn’t thrilled that Lisa was trying to make Scheana and Lala take responsibility for her ex’s well-being. “It’s a heavy burden to put on people,” Ariana said. “I think that I don’t take that stuff lightly. I mean, he apparently took it lightly when he was saying it was me. He went on Howie Mandel’s and was talking about how I was [suicidal] as if this is, like, fodder for a podcast. So I think it’s kind of alarming that it is an important thing, depending on who we’re talking about, I guess.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
