Powering through. Vanderpump Rules star Tom Schwartz is still hurting after close friends Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired from the series earlier this year.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it. It doesn’t feel real,” the TomTom owner, 37, said during an episode of the “Give Them Lala … With Randall” podcast on Wednesday, August 5. “I hope it doesn’t seem like a cop-out but I just honestly haven’t processed it. Maybe I’m running from it a little bit or I’m in denial that it ever happened.”
In June, Bravo confirmed that Schroeder, 32, and Doute, 37, would not be returning to the reality series. News of the firings came shortly after former Pump Rules star Faith Stowers claimed that Schroeder and Doute falsely reported her for a crime in 2018. New cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni were also let go after racially insensitive comments from their past resurfaced.
One month after the longtime reality stars were ousted from the series, an insider told Us Weekly that it was “looking less likely” that Bravo would pick up the show for another season. Despite speculation about the show’s future, Schwartz, who became a main cast member during season 3 in 2014, isn’t giving up hope.
“I’m optimistic about the future of Vanderpump Rules,” the Minnesota native, who married costar Kate Maloney in 2016, said on the podcast. “I feel like the show still has legs, it still has so much life to give. But it’s never going to be the same, that’s for sure. … I love my friends and I support them. It’s been rough but we’ll be OK, we’ll get through it.”
Days before being officially fired from the cast of the Bravo series, both Doute and the Next Level Basic author acknowledged their mistakes in lengthy apologies on social media. As they continue to work through the consequences of their pasts, their rep, Steve Honig, told Us that they were both hoping to “move forward” from the scandal.
“Stassi and Kristen acknowledged what they did was wrong, have apologized and been punished,” Honig said in June. “Without casting aside their actions or the impact of those actions, they want to move forward as part of the solution in ways that are productive, meaningful and sincere. Both of them recognize actions speak louder than words and that is what will guide them as they move forward.”
Though the former reality stars have had their ups and downs in the past, the Michigan native and Schroeder, now pregnant with her first child with fiancé Beau Clark, have reconnected over their shared challenges.
“Stassi and Kristin are friends at this point,” a source told Us exclusively in July. “The two of them are going through this together and the experience has brought them closer together again.”
