Ariana Madix addressed Katie Maloney‘s drama with Lala Kent on Tuesday night’s Watch What Happens Live.
While also offering updates on her relationships with Scheana Shay, 39, and Tom Schwartz, 41, and sharing her reaction to Tom Sandoval‘s lawsuit against her, the Vanderpump Rules star, 39, revealed if Ann Maddox still works at Something About Her, considered a potential spinoff, looked ahead to the Love Island USA reunion, and more.
“I don’t know,” Ariana admitted when asked if Katie, 37, and Lala, 33, were still friends on the August 13 episode of WWHL.
Although Katie recently made headlines after being spotted on what looked like a date with Love Island‘s Connor Newsum, Ariana confirmed Katie is “not dating anyone” and that she has “never played matchmaker with Katie.”
As for where she stands with the Pump Rules cast, Ariana said she is not in touch with Tom Schwartz, 41, and that she speaks to Scheana “here and there” after their friendship took a hit at the season 11 reunion.
“There’s a lot of love there, and I think that will always be there. And I’m really happy, she just won an award for talking about her postpartum OCD, and I thought that was really, really lovely,” she stated.
While Ariana said it “would be great” if her bad days were behind her, she admitted that learning about Sandoval, 42, filing a lawsuit against her, which he claims he has since dismissed, “was a really bad day.”
Amid her legal drama, which also includes lawsuits from ex-boyfriend Sandoval’s former mistress, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 29, and her former chef, Penny Davidi, Ariana’s sandwich shop, which she co-owns with Katie, is thriving. And despite recently having her hours cut back, Ariana said Ann is still working there.
“Yeah. Ann’s working with us,” she confirmed.
Ariana then said that when it came to the idea for a potential spinoff at the restaurant, the concept “sounds fun.”
Looking back at the past couple of years, Ariana revealed her “biggest lesson.”
“I would say that I think that this goes for myself, and I think so many of us as well, I’m capable of so much more than I think I let myself believe previously,” she stated.
Moving on to The Valley, Ariana said she “watched parts of it” and found it to be “chaos” as she admitted it did not make her miss Jax Taylor, 45, and weighed in on Kristen Doute‘s romance with Luke Broderick.
“I know that they’re really happy together, and obviously Kristen’s my girl, so whoever she’s happy with is what I’m gonna support,” she shared.
Ariana then answered a series of questions about Love Island, whose sixth season she hosted earlier this year.
According to Ariana, she found the results of Casa Amore, where four out of six guys brought women back to the villa, to be “chaotic and also kind of iconic,” and she suspected there “was probably just more and more things with [Daniela Ortiz-Rivera] and Aaron” that they didn’t show on the episode.
She then denied that Leah Kateb had a significant role in Andrea Carmona being dumped from the villa and said she hoped none of the remaining couples call it quits.
“I really love them. [But] Leah and [Miguel Harichi] have a very large distance issue. He lives in the UK, so he better get that visa cuz I’m rooting for them,” she stated.
As for what she’ll ask at the reunion, Ariana said, “I wanna know, what’s the weird stuff that we don’t see?”
Later, on the WWHL: After Show, Ariana was asked if the Chicago choreography came right back to her when she returned to Broadway earlier this month after taking several months off.
“Yes. I think the challenge was making it feel new and not like, ‘Oh I just know this,’ but thinking in the moment. That was the biggest challenge,” she shared.
When another fan wanted to know how she felt about James Kennedy, 32, saying he teared up at her hosting Love Island, Ariana admitted it “means a lot.”
“James is always, I feel like we have a big sister, little brother relationship a bit, and so it’s a show that both of us have chatted about in the past, so it’s very cool that him and [his girlfriend, Ally Lewber] were watching,” she explained. “That was like, really cute. I loved it. He’s really supportive.”
She also said that “everyone” from Pump Rules has “been really supportive.”