Ariana Madix slammed producers for seemingly trapping her at the Vanderpump Rules reunion in retaliation for her refusing to film with Tom Sandoval during the finale.
While appearing on Katie Maloney, 37, and Dayna Kathan‘s podcast on Wednesday, Ariana, 38, accused producers of attempting to manipulate a fake scene between her and Sandoval, 41, while also reacting to criticism she’s received regarding her behavior at the reunion and dishing on her boyfriend, Daniel Wai, 40.
“They did not do what they thought they were gonna do,” Ariana began of producers on the May 29 episode of Disrespectfully. “You see me mouth, ‘What the f*ck,’ I think to Scheana, which was literally like, ‘Oh, so this is what they’re doing? Because when they emailed the episodes, they said, ‘You’ll notice that you don’t have da-da-da,’ but then they didn’t really say why, and so it felt like, honestly, it felt very pointed towards me.”
After denying Sandoval a conversation at the finale in San Diego, Ariana and her castmates were met with footage of the final moments of the finale during the taping of the reunion.
“It felt like, ‘Well we have her trapped in this room now, so we didn’t get what we wanted to get, this like, some sort of tearful … we didn’t get to break her down [in real life] in the moment so we’re gonna retaliate by doing this right now in a place where she’s contractually obligated to be here and try to force this moment now.’ And it’s like, ‘Great. I cried. You guys happy now?’”
According to Ariana, she “gave them the best f*cking ending to what that season could’ve had in that moment by leaving.”
“It was real and it was exciting to watch. Sorry. If you’re looking at it only from a perspective of like, ‘good reality TV,’ I gave you good reality TV,” she insisted, further targeting the series’ producers. “Standing there, this conversation that was like, being, this fake thing, manufactured thing that was like wanting to be had, would’ve been a boring cap to a boring a** season.”
“What did I not show you? I showed you my storage unit of a f*cking bedroom. If you watch the season and you don’t see how low I am during the whole time, you need glasses. I showed all of that stuff. If there’s stuff that they filmed and then decided not to air, that has nothing to do with me, but I gave it all,” she continued. “I even had to convince Dan to film FaceTimes. He’s like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I was like, ‘Well, please?’”
As for what her producers wanted out of her, Ariana compared her and Sandoval’s situation to his past drama with Miami girl, who he was accused of cheating with.
“They wanted the [Kristen Doute]-Miami conversation [re-done], like 2.0, but the tearful apology is the two seconds later — that’s why it’s never a thing because there is no … it’s like two seconds after that it turns on a dime so you can’t ever trust it anyway so what’s the point in having it?” she wondered.
Although some have criticized Ariana for not watching the entirety of the season before the reunion taping, suggesting that she would’ve given more emotion if she had, Ariana noted that she saw “plenty of clips online.” That said, she simply didn’t care to go tit-for-tat with her castmates.
“I went there, I flew in, stayed at Katie’s, and then literally got on a plane that night after the reunion to fly back and do two shows [on Broadway] the next day,” she recalled. “I was doing my best to show up, but at the same time, it was like, I don’t have that strong of feelings — I don’t think that would’ve changed anything about like how I responded to things because I also was, like, even if I feel deeply about something, which you do see me talk about things I felt strongly about. But other stuff, I’m like, ‘Am I really gonna sit there and correct every little lie, interject?’ No. I’m not gonna do that.”
“I’m at a point now, I feel like something that’s changed for me as a person is I’ve become a little bit like, ‘What you say about me, you can think that. I don’t care.’ It doesn’t change my life, or it doesn’t change who I am if you think that about me, especially if you’re not a part of my life on a day-to-day basis,” she continued. “So it’s like, I could sit there and I could correct it … but it’s like, for what? For who? Who would I be doing that for?”
As for claims that due to her romance with Dan, she shouldn’t have held such resentment toward Sandoval, Ariana clarified that her new relationship had nothing to do with what she went through.
“Being over that person romantically doesn’t mean you’re over the stuff that you went through — and still going through because I’m still having to deal with like, all of it. I haven’t been there since September and I’m still having to deal with it,” she shared, signaling to the fight over her and Sandoval’s $2 million home.
Vanderpump Rules is currently on pause ahead of its 12th season.