Pumping up the drama
Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney open up about #Scandoval and the ‘very angry’ reunion
is running late — there’s paparazzi following her,” a Bravo publicist signals to the room.
It’s just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday when “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix eventually arrives at Something About Her, the sandwich shop she’s opening soon with co-star and friend Katie Maloney. Just past the ladders and boxes stacked with pendant lights and other finishes creating minor obstacles in the small West Hollywood space, she scurries to a tucked corner to rummage through hangers of clothing before a photo shoot with Maloney.
“This is the level of mess that I am every day,” she says. (The paparazzo who, as she noted, had been stationed out “Ariana side her home all morning and trailed her here, eventually left. “For now,” Madix quips in a singsong tone.)
The pair don’t yet have an opening date for their new endeavor; in an ideal world, Maloney says, it will be as soon as possible. But that’s not what brings us here. Starting up this business is not exactly the most challenging experience they’ve undergone together in recent months.
In early March, just four episodes into the show’s 10th season, TMZ reported that cast member Tom Sandoval cheated on Madix, leading to their breakup after nine years of dating. But there was no preparing “Vanderpump” devotees for the news that Sandoval cheated on Madix with co-star Raquel Leviss. After calling off her engagement to co-star James Kennedy — who is also one of Sandoval’s good friends — Leviss was initially linked to fellow co-star Tom Schwartz following his split from Maloney. (During the
season, the dynamic between Schwartz and Leviss takes focus, and the two make out, despite Maloney expressing how hurtful it would be to see her ex engage with someone in their friend group.)
It didn’t matter whether you were a viewer of “Vanderpump Rules” or not — news of the Sandoval-Leviss affair rippled across social media platforms and demanded your attention. In the weeks since, the affair, which came to be dubbed “Scandoval,” has maintained its grip on our curiosity, with each new episode providing countless moments to dissect and a spate of headlines revealing the latest developments. Hence, the paparazzi.
Who needs galaxy lights when the glow of a phone screen feeding you endless “Vanderpump” updates can provide enough celestial magic to light up a room?
On the day before the first installment of the three-part “Vanderpump Rules” reunion aired on Bravo, sitting in the small alleyway as construction resumed on their space, Madix and Maloney talked about navigating life’s curveballs in the public eye and communication with the Toms.
Beyond press obligations, are both of you just constantly being asked about this, even in your everyday lives?
Maloney: Yes and no. Probably her more so.
Madix: Yeah. Because for the first two months of everything, I just didn’t say anything to anyone.
I’m assuming that was a very conscious choice?
Madix: It was and it wasn’t at the same time. It started out as not a conscious choice. And then as time went on, I was like, “No, OK, let’s actually really wait.” Why? I’m processing. I’m a Virgo moon — Cancer sun, Virgo moon; I feel things very deeply and chaotically sometimes. And so in order to talk about how I feel about anything, good or bad, I have to process it and organize it before I know how to make it make sense.
It’s the day before the first installment of the reunion is set to air. How are you feeling right now?
Madix: What’s done is done, what’s said is said; there’s no going back now. I think all of our emotions on March 23 [when filming of the reunion took place] were in a very raw place, and that’s what you’re gonna see. It is what it is. You’ll definitely see me in a very angry place, one you’ve never seen me in before.
Maloney: It was awesome. [Both laugh.] Because the weeks leading up to it, she was going through all the stages of grief and healing. And so for her to get to that stage was really gratifying. And coming off [the finale] where it was just such a dark and twisted and insane episode, this first installment of the reunion is very gratifying to watch —
Madix: You’ve seen it?
Maloney: You haven’t watched it?
Madix: No, no one sent it
Katie, recently on “Watch What Happens Live,” you said you still had questions because so much has happened since the reunion was shot. What are those questions?
Madix: [To Maloney] What are your questions?
Maloney: There’s just people that don’t want to be honest. That’s what I meant by that. I think there was a lot that was answered at the reunion. There’s things I haven’t seen yet, like the one-on-one interviews, so maybe those questions will be answered then. Like, if Tom Schwartz was so concerned about the business, maybe he should have pushed Sandoval to do the right f— thing in the beginning when he found out. You had so much opportunity to turn the ship around. And you didn’t because you’re a coward.
So, Ariana, you’re still living with Tom Sandoval. Can I ask what that is like?
Madix: We don’t cross paths.
At all?
Madix: No. It’s big enough that we don’t have to. So, I’m in the primary bedroom. If you go upstairs, it’s to the left. And if you go upstairs, and you go all the way down to the right, that’s the guest bedroom. That’s where he’s staying. We communicate with a third party. If he’s at the house, he stays either in the guest bedroom or in the gym. And it’s, like, “Hey, when is he going to be done with the gym? I need to use it.” “He said he’ll be done at X time.” “OK, cool.” And then he either goes straight back into the guest room or he leaves. I move about the house a little bit more freely, but I definitely make sure that we don’t cross paths. I might hear footsteps, but that’s about it.
Katie, you’ve gotten a lot of criticism over the show’s run over what some viewers see as negative or mean girl behavior at times. I’m curious, how much do you attribute some of that to being a response to your dynamic with Schwartz and your unhappiness?
Maloney: He’s so likable, and it’s hard to be the other person in this couple because everyone loves Tom. I’m going to be the one that takes the hit and is going to be the bad guy in every situation. ... It is hard to be that person in a couple, and I think anyone that is that person can relate to it. But I’ve been trying to drive that point home for a very long time. It’s that, coupled with misogyny. ... It’s me being scapegoated by Tom all these years, and also just the way society views women who aren’t necessarily quintessentially happy-golucky, positive all the time, upbeat, smiling — being the way women “should” be.
Why do you think this blew up the way that it did?
Maloney: I think it’s the history, the dynamics. It’s the deception. It’s the lengths they went to. If you look at Raquel, the way she had [that] conversation at Sur, where she was trying to gauge you [Ariana] to be like, “Are you attracted to him? So you want to be with him” under the guise of always trying to be a good friend. And having code names, and she was catching flights to go to his shows. And the way they roped mutual friends into the deceit to protect and hide this thing. It’s so devious and so scary.
What had been your read on Tom Sandoval in recent months or years? Had your intuition told you something was off ?
Madix: He was going through some s—. But I sensed that he had been going through some s— since he started trying to open the bar.
Maloney: When he was opening a bar and then was like, “I think I’m also going to start this cover band.” I remember telling Schwartz, “Why does he feel this is a good time to be doing any of this other stuff? Why can’t he stay focused on one thing?”
Katie, when you and Schwartz initially split, you came to the agreement that you were not going to hook up with anyone in the friend group. How much of that was you already worried about someone in particular, or how much of that was just, “We’re on ‘Vanderpump Rules.’ We know how things happen here, so let’s set this straight now?”
Maloney: Honestly, both, but mostly getting ahead of the curve and just knowing how I was feeling. ... I just told him, “Listen, if we’re gonna continue this, it’s not really going to get any easier because ‘Vanderpump Rules’ is the Thunderdome. I think it would be the most healthy scenario and less toxic if we just tried to keep that portion of it off the table.”
Prior to the TMZ story breaking, Ariana, you had already alerted production to the demise of the relationship. Talk a little bit about that. Did you feel any sort of implicit or explicit pressure to start cameras back up? Was it you wanting to start things back up?
Madix: We were actually supposed to film B-roll around the house on that Monday. So when our talent coordinator texted me about times for Monday, and I said, “Hey, so that’s not going to work, here’s why.” ... I was actually in front of Tom. I was sitting there writing in my Notes app like, “I want to tell everyone about this!” And he was like, “Don’t post it on Instagram.” In hindsight, it’s best that I didn’t. So he was right about one thing.
Our showrunner called me and he was like, “What the hell are you talking about? Are you joking?” We talked on the phone for a long time. And at the end of the conversation, he was like, “I don’t know when we could do this, but I do feel like we need to capture this moment.” And I was like, “I don’t love that. But I completely understand. And you just let me know.”
What did you think, Katie, about cameras capturing this moment? You’ve gone through big life discussions, like your divorce, without it being filmed.
Maloney: I was supposed to go to New York the following week. And [a producer] told me I couldn’t go. They were going to need me in L.A., we’re actually going back into production. And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” He said, “Do you know what I’m talking about? If you don’t, I can’t really say.” I’m like, “This is the most confusing, cryptic thing ever.” ... I said, “Are people OK?” He said, “Yes and no.” I’m like, “Does this affect me directly? Am I gonna cry?” He’s like, “You might cry.”
With the new finale that captured the fallout of everything, and knowing that you were going to be able to have this conversation with Sandoval, did you go in like, “I want to make sure I say this”?
Madix: I knew that I wanted that to be accurate to the way that he had been behaving the 48 hours leading up to that. And when he sat down and started acting sad, I said, “This is not you. This is an act. Why are you acting sad now? You’ve been yelling at me for 48 hours.” Even the next day, after he filmed with Raquel, he came back to my house and yelled at all my friends that were there. So I found everything to be very disingenuous.
Do you know if he ever brought Raquel to your home since the breakup?
Madix: She spent the night at my house when I went to Mexico for a wedding. I know that for a fact, even though his publicist, via his own word-for-word text message, said, “Don’t worry. I was able to get Page Six to take the word ‘sleepover’ out.” The paper trail runs deep. Let me just say that.
Maloney: There always have to be screenshots.
What did you think of the moment Sandoval and Raquel have together in the finale?
Madix: If it wasn’t real life, I would have thought it was like an episode of “Arrested Development.” It was bizarro comedy.
Maloney: The cheersing, “Welcome to hell” ... just the juxtaposition. The galaxy lights. How many galaxy lights are going off in that house? Do you have stock in galaxy lights, Raquel? I want to know. Anyways, I digress. But it was disturbing, to say the least. And just the way she all of a sudden had like this “aha!” moment of, “Wait, if you could cheat on Ariana, could you cheat on me?” It’s like, “You just arrived at this?”
The reunion was shot in March but, as we’ve established, things keep coming out. Is there anything more that you would want to say to him that you haven’t already said?
Madix: I don’t have anything to say to him. I think that he is probably well aware at this point that I know a lot more that he was still lying about at the reunion.
Maloney: We all know your secrets, buddy.