Fans are still reeling from the Vanderpump Rules season 10 finale – and so is Lisa Vanderpump. The Bravo star spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about Ariana Madix’s reaction to how she handled Tom Sandoval’s meltdown about the fallout from his affair with Raquel Leviss and more.
“Everybody else was chastising him. I didn’t feel like joining the pack. I mean, it seemed so kind of slanted. Everything was against him, you know?” the 62-year-old SUR owner told Us at the Vanderpump Dogs Gala on Thursday, May 18. “I’ve known him for a long time. Of course, I’m condemning what he did. That’s why I said, ‘You’re not a bad person. You just did a bad thing.’ And my heart was always with Ariana. Maybe I didn’t kind of, you know, scream at him and lambast him, but everybody else had done that.”
Madix, 37, told Andy Cohen on Wednesday, May 17, that Vanderpump “was a little too nice to” Sandoval, 40, however, she added that she’ll make an exception for the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum and husband Ken Todd when it comes to cutting off everyone who is still on speaking terms with her ex-boyfriend.
“The man that was sitting in my living room, it felt like a broken man. So I just didn’t want to pile on, to be honest,” Vanderpump continued to Us. “Have I had conversations and held ’em accountable? Yes, I mean, I felt the same way, absolutely, that everybody else did. But at some point, they’re like my children in some way. They’ve grown up with me. … You might scream at him for a second, and I did that before, but when I saw him, then you’ve gotta try to at least move forward or look for the path forward — even though it was too early to move forward [or] look for the path forward. But of course, we were all very upset. We felt duped. We were disgusted, we were hurt — all of those things.”
The reality TV star added that Sandoval’s breakdown was “was actually worse than we saw” on the show.
“And I think Vanderpump Rules is really good at that when it comes to producing the show and everything, it was enough what we saw. Was it worse than that? Yes,” she said. “And that scares me when somebody’s just so depressed. But I think it was a moment that it all kind of came to a head there with me, and he knew that, you know, he’d lost so much from this whole choice that he’d made.”
Us confirmed in March that Madix and Sandoval split after nine years together when she discovered he had been sleeping with Leviss, 28, for several months.
“This group never, never, ever [failed] to surprise me. I mean, because they live the life off camera as well as on camera. It’s not orchestrated,” Vanderpump told Us on Thursday. “They move together. They have babies together. They go on vacation together. It’s a revolving door. It just keeps going.”
Vanderpump added that she saw Sandoval “just a few days ago” in a group setting. “When there are other people around, there’s nothing more to say that hasn’t been said,” she said. “We had 12 hours at reunion where a lot of stuff came out and it was hard.”
When it comes to reports that Sandoval and Leviss “broke up” as she remains in mental health treatment, Vanderpump noted: “That’s an unknown … because I didn’t think they’d been together in the first place.”
Vanderpump was joined by James Kennedy, Peter Madrigal and more at the 5th Vanderpump Dog Foundation GALA at The Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills on Thursday. The gala supports her Vanderpump Dog Foundation, whose initiatives include rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming dogs, as well as providing veterinary care, essential medication, food, vaccinations, and training, and international rescue efforts in countries like China and Peru.
“Tonight’s going to be a beautiful night with Kristin Chenoweth singing,” she told Us before heading inside. “She sings like an angel. I was here for sound check. Unbelievable.”
The three-part Vanderpump Rules reunion special begins on Bravo Wednesday, May 24, at 9 p.m. ET.
Reporting by Sarah Jones
