Hashtag: It’s all happening.
A day after it was reported that Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix had split after nine years of dating over his alleged unfaithfulness—specifically, that he cheated on her with co-star Raquel Leviss—Sandoval took to Instagram to address the chaos.
“Hey, I fully understand and deserve ur anger & disappointment towards me,” he wrote, “but please leave [co-star and business partner Tom] Schwartz my friends and family out of this situation…”
Seemingly in response to fans’ calls to boycott and review-bomb Schwartz & Sandy’s, the new Los Angeles bar partly owned by Sandoval, he went on to ask that his audience “direct ur anger towards me” and not his business partners and staff.
“I will be taking a step back & taking a hiatus out of respect for my employees & partners,” he concluded. “I need some time to address everything else. Sorry for everything-”
Notably, his post did not mention Madix, who has yet to publicly address the situation. The break-up was first reported Friday by TMZ, with sources telling the outlet that Madix had discovered sexually explicit texts between Sandoval and Leviss that week.
Other Vanderpump stars were quick to point out the omission. “S*ndoval. Shut up. Employees, abort mission,” LaLa Kent fumed on her Instagram Story. “where’s Ariana’s apology in this? it’s called narcissism… & it’s terrifying.”
“Where’s the mention of hurting Ariana?!” Katie Maloney added on her own Story. “No apologies to her?”
The revelation of the affair reportedly took Madix by surprise, with an insider telling People that Sandoval and Leviss had been sneaking around for months. “This has been going on for upwards of six months—all the while, Tom was sleeping next to Ariana in bed,” the person said. “She was completely blindsided by this; devastated doesn’t even scratch the surface of how she feels.”
“This is someone she thought she knew; someone she planned to spend the rest of her life with,” they continued. “You can’t even put into words that betrayal.”
On Sunday, Page Six reported that the former couple appeared to be awkwardly attempting to avoid each other at the Los Angeles home they’ve shared for years. (Sandoval is reportedly in the process of moving out.) Madix was spotted by photographers rushing out of the house in fuzzy socks and no shoes, climbing into her car as Sandoval, who fronts a cover band called Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras, returned from the previous night’s gig.
“He put on a great show,” one person who was in the audience told E! News. “Unless you know what’s going on in the rumor mill, you would never know something was going on.”
That was not the case during Friday’s show, when Sandoval asked the crowd, “Have you ever been one of the most hated people in America?” according to Page Six.
Later, an audience member could be heard yelling, “Ariana!” In footage of the show shared on social media, Sandoval can be heard responding, “We love her.”
A source told People on Friday that “cameras are rolling right now” on Vanderpump’s 10th season, which premiered on Feb. 8, meaning that fans will get to see the fall of the pair’s relationship play out in all of its grisly glory.
