Ariana Madix opened up about an off-camera moment she had with Tom Sandoval following filming on the Vanderpump Rules season 11 finale episode, which aired Tuesday.
As she looked back on her refusal to set up a redemption arc for Sandoval, 41, and he accused her of being “stubborn,” Ariana, 38, reflected on their post-finale interaction as Scheana Shay, 39, admitted to wishing she was more understanding and Lala Kent, 33, commented on their dynamic.
“There’s only one person that would benefit from anything that could’ve happened in that moment and it’s him,” Ariana said in response to criticism over her decision to walk away from Sandoval on the May 7 episode of the Vanderpump Rules: After Show.
According to Ariana, she had seen enough from Sandoval in the months leading up to the finale that she didn’t feel he deserved to be heard.
“Being that this is likely the last few moments of filming for season 11 and there’s not been one mention of anything the entire summer that sounded anywhere near what is remorse or kindness or anything coming in my direction from him, he knows that this is the last moment he’ll have to redeem himself with the audience. And him crying and me looking like a b*tch, I’m not here to facilitate that,” she stated.
As for her interaction with Sandoval after the finale, Ariana said she and her ex-boyfriend crossed paths at their previously shared home.
“It’s rare that we cross paths at all in the house, but at that point in time, he was like, laying on the sofa where the TV is by the kitchen, and I was in the kitchen. And apparently, he didn’t need to say anything that bad because he could have literally right then, or he could have written a letter and left it on the counter,” she noted. “He clearly knows how to email me nonsensical letters of intent.”
“There’s so many different ways to try and say something that’s like, so important to be said. But no, for him, it needed to be said on camera because it needed to be in the zeitgeist or in the collective conscience of people watching the show,” Ariana continued. “It actually had nothing to do with me.”
Meanwhile, after noting that he truly believed the two of them could’ve had a “less fueled,” “shell-shocked conversation,” Sandoval admitted he doesn’t know if they’ll ever get there.
“She’s pretty stubborn,” he stated. “At this point, I’d like to talk to her, maybe [at] the reunion.”
Also on the Pump Rules: After Show, Scheana spoke of reconciling her relationship with Sandoval.
“It would’ve made it easier on me if [Ariana] was like, ‘I understand you need to do this for you. You and I are good,’ which I got from her in San Francisco but it was a whole summer to get to that conversation,” she shared. “I did need that from her because I wanted her to know, as much as I’m putting this aspect of what he did in a box over here and trying to figure out this path, I don’t forgive him for that and I still have your back and he and I are never going to be what we were before. I just need to get past the hurt he’s caused me with this aside because I was literally losing sleep, I was losing weight, I was not myself.”
Although Ariana ultimately allowed Scheana to make her own decision about Sandoval, she didn’t want to hear much about it.
“I’ve never told her what to do, I’ve held space for her to feel these things but I’m also not the person you should be, like, I’m not your diary,” she noted.
Elsewhere, Lala suspected that Scheana was afraid of doing something that Ariana wouldn’t approve of.
“I think when it comes to this, it’s that she’s really nervous about what people will say if she goes against Ariana,” she explained.
The three-part Vanderpump Rules season 11 reunion premieres next Tuesday, May 14, at 8/7 on Bravo.