An even bigger villain now. It didn’t seem possible that Tom Sandoval could be most detested among Vanderpump Rules fans, but he has proved us wrong. Rather than being apologetic at the VPR reunion, it was reported that Tom had been combative.
What’s ironic now is that former Pump Rules villain, Jax Taylor, is giving his two cents on cheating and poor behavior. Presumably, Jax turned over a new leaf to keep his wife Brittany Cartwright around. The pair left the show in 2020.
Jax has been very vocal since news of Scandoval broke. Indeed, fellow alum Kristen Doute, who dated Sandoval before he hooked up with Ariana Madix, came out of the woodwork to share her insights.
Us Weekly reported that Jax discussed the drama during a recent episode of the When Reality Hits With Jax And Brittany podcast. “From what I heard, he was going in on her and deflecting. He didn’t just tuck his tail between his legs and say, ‘You know what? I screwed up. I made a bad decision and I am sorry,’” he said
Tom “deflected and went after everybody,” during the reunion filming. Jax added, “It keeps getting worse and worse and worse with all the stuff I hear. I’m waiting for the empathy. I am waiting for Tom to say, ‘I f—ked up.’”
Meanwhile, Tom Schwartz was present at the reunion taping. He praised Ariana for her composure during a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
The Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner said, “I have never seen such a ruthless denunciation of two human beings in my life. Ariana had a fire in her. I mean, she eviscerated those two and I’ve never seen anything like that. I didn’t know she had it in her,” Schwartz added.
Schwartz has taken heat for seemingly letting Sandoval off the hook for the scandalous affair with Raquel Leviss that started in the summer of 2022. Including asking fans to hug the disgraced star.
“I learned about the affair in August. The one-night stand was in August and then it became, from my point of view, it became an emotional affair,” Schwartz explained. “Which is still inappropriate, but I didn’t think it was linear. [Then] in January, he came to me and told me that he was in love with Raquel.”
VPR fans are waiting for the reunion to air with great anticipation. As well as the rest of Season 10. When news of Tom’s affair broke, Bravo sprang into action to film the reactions of the cast.
“The cameras haven’t stopped rolling. It’s not an understatement to say this will be the most explosive season of Vanderpump Rules ever,” a source told Us Weekly early in March.
Sandoval issued an apology that read more as a defense of his restaurant Schwartz & Sandy’s. He finally got it right with a do-over statement.
“I want to first and foremost apologize to everyone I’ve hurt through this process. Most of all, I want to apologize to Ariana,” Sandoval posted to Instagram in March. “I made mistakes, I was selfish and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly.”
Sandoval continued, “I can only imagine how devastating this has been for Ariana and everyone around us. I feel really horrible about that. My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends.”
Raquel issued a statement of her own via Instagram. She wrote, “I want to apologize for my actions and my choices foremost to Ariana, and to my friends and the fans so invested in our relationships. There is no excuse, I am not a victim and I must own my actions and I deeply regret hurting Ariana.”
Ariana was able to speak her peace at the reunion. Both solo with host Andy Cohen and to the group. Andy explained the set-up during his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, last week.
“I did separate one-on-ones with Tom, Ariana, and Raquel so that I could get all of their stories just in conversation with me,” the Bravo executive explained. Andy re-asked, “A lot of the stuff in front of the group,” too.
“I also had things — I had my own concerns. I had my own things that I wanted to confront them about. Things I had noticed so I got to do that. So that’s how we started and then we brought them to the filming group,” Andy concluded.
Meanwhile, co-star Lala Kent confirmed on Amazon Live that security had to separate two individuals during filming. “I’m not gonna say who it was. I will say Andy [Cohen] got involved,” the Give Them Lala Beauty founder said. “He could hardly control it, so security got involved. I won’t say who was trying to brawl or whatever, but it was very heated the entire day.”
Season 10 continues to heat up and hints of Raquel and Tom’s affair are becoming more apparent.
TELL US- HOW DO YOU THINK ARIANA BEHAVED TOWARD TOM AND RAQUEL? WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE DURING THE REUNION? SHOULD JAX GIVE HIS OPINION ON SCANDOVAL? WHO DO YOU THINK FOUGHT AT THE REUNION?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]