Credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images, Getty Images/JC Olivera/Stringer
Tom Sandoval claims he broke up with Ariana Madix weeks before she caught him having an affair with their Vanderpump Rules co-star and longtime friend, Raquel Leviss.
While appearing on Howie Mandel‘s podcast on Tuesday, Sandoval suggested he and Ariana were more like “roommates” and “lacking” intimacy before their split as he admitted Raquel was like a drug, recalled their “magnetic” first kiss, and shaded his castmates for their many comments about the scandal.
“Using this to make it seem like everything I have done for them — they make it out like I am a narcissist,” Sandoval said of his co-stars on the April 11 episode of Howie Mandel Does Stuff, per Us Weekly. “You are taking what I did with this affair, and you are erasing the last 15 years of our friendship.”
“Using all these things as content for their podcast. Fellow cast members are asking me all these questions, but you don’t want to know because you care about Ariana [Madix]. You want to know so you have more content for your podcast,” he went on. “It is f-cking disgusting to me. It is so gross. You are not someone who gives a flying f-ck about Ariana. You are doing this for your own personal gain.”
Since the news broke of his and Raquel’s affair in early March, Sandoval has struggled with “dark thoughts” as people continue to discuss the matter.
“I don’t know [why it blew up]. I just think it was really shocking. This happened when there wasn’t a lot going on [in the news],” he suspected.
Sandoval then addressed the distance between him and Ariana in the months leading up to their split.
“That was sort of discussed, but it kind of went unsaid. Our communication was not great. I feel like that’s a fault on both of us,” Sandoval said, via TooFab.
According to Sandoval, he started “to feel trapped” in his relationship with Ariana as he approached his 40th birthday and likened their dynamic to a “really bleak” situation.
“[I needed to] make a change to feel alive again, to feel motivated,” he explained, noting that he was in a “very dark place” and “yearning for a connection.”
As both he and Ariana struggled with anxiety and depression, he and Raquel became “really, really good friends,” kissing for the first time in his backyard sometime after guys’ night, when they were seen looking “cozy,” but before Scheana Shay and Brock Davies‘ August 2022 wedding, where Raquel kissed Tom Schwartz.
“We kissed. It was like magnetic. We were talking, moving closer. And then all of a sudden we’re like kissing,” he recalled. “I felt something that I hadn’t felt in so long. Like, emotionally.”
“After Raquel and I kissed and I felt this way, I got my a– into therapy immediately to try to figure out what the hell I’m gonna do because the feelings were very, very strong,” he continued. “Those feelings that I had started to kind of take over. Logic, all that sh-t went out the window.”
Looking back at their initial moments together, Sandoval said Raquel was like a drug and admitted it was a “very unhealthy” situation.
“It made us both obsessive over trying to see each other and stuff,” he explained.
Although Sandoval was “a little jealous” when Raquel kissed Schwartz, he said they only did so because they “had been crucified like they were in a full blown relationship by [Katie Maloney] and [Lala Kent].”
In the weeks that followed his and Raquel’s first kiss, Sandoval said he tried to resist Raquel and began going to therapy with Ariana. However, while he claims he “started to slowly plant the seed” about breaking up with her, she appeared to be in “denial.”
“She had heard things and seen things about Raquel but was very much turning a blind eye — or trusting me I guess,” he explained.
Eventually, Sandoval’s efforts to stay away from Raquel ended as the two of them began spending time together “as often” as possible and FaceTiming “all the time.”
Meanwhile, Ariana didn’t know a thing “because that’s how separate [their] lives were.”
“I had to tell her, ‘Have you not noticed how distant I’ve been lately?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, you have?’ She didn’t even notice, that’s how our relationship was, we had separate lives,” Sandoval shared. “So when I said hypothetically if we broke up, she basically was like, well, definitely not going to the reunion, I’m quitting the show, f-ck the sandwich shop, we’re selling the house and deleting all social media and I’m moving away.”
Despite Ariana’s threats, Sandoval said he dumped her on Valentine’s Day and planned to keep the news to themselves until they could “figure out a way to navigate this” in a way that would help them both.
According to Sandoval, Ariana was “very upset” and “punched” him.
“She’s like, ‘I’m, like, not letting you leave me. You’re gonna have to force me out of this relationship,’” he claimed. “I didn’t know what to do. She was completely in denial and not accepting it.”
Even after Ariana learned about his romance with Raquel, Ariana was “trying to convince [Sandoval] not to be broken up” and questioned him about “getting [his] sperm checked to fertilize my eggs.”
“It really scared me,” he admitted.
Sandoval went on to say that “nothing is excusable for what I did” and confessed he “f—ed up” and “definitely deserved” backlash before adding that the only person he owes an explanation to is Ariana.
“On camera, off camera, if Ariana wants to know any details, I’ll fully go into that. She’s the only one who deserves that,” he said.
As for where he stands with Raquel, Sandoval said, “We’re really good friends, we’re not putting any label on it. We’re also taking a break.”
He then denied they are “friends with benefits” and admitted “it’s not gonna be easy to go back or film” season 11, although he’s not contractually obligated to go back.
Vanderpump Rules season 10 airs Wednesdays on Bravo.
Lindsay Cronin
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