Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix | 19

A listener note, this episode includes adult language.

Matt, have you had your brain tainted by the Bravo channel at all, or are you still pure and unsullied? My brain has long been tainted by Bravo, trust me. Okay, so you're a lost cause. Like myself. There's no saving me at this point. Yeah. Okay. Although my Bravo knowledge is spotty, it's not universal. Ah, okay. Well, I feel the same way, but thankfully I think what we're talking about today might be an area of shared interest for us.

And if it's not, then I'm bringing you down with me. Possibly Okay, so we're on a show where mess thrives, Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live. But it actually makes sense for this story because Vanderpump Rules is one of Bravo's hit shows. And Andy Cohen's the King of Bravo. So tonight he's got two stars of the show on, Raquel Levis and Sheena Shea. I have to say Vanderpump Rules is one of my Bravo blind spots. I'm surprised. Yeah.

But I am very excited to talk about this today because I don't know anything about it. My knowledge is really like I know Lisa Vanderpump, right? Right. Beverly Hill's housewife. I'm obsessed with her. A mess. I've had friends who have eaten at that restaurant and they're like, incredible time, worst service of my life. Yeah. It because they hire hot people like this who should not be serving food or be in any type of service job, they just are there to be looked at. Right.

What else do you know though I'm aware that like it it all went down this year and that there was some huge scandal, but I never learned the details. We're going to start by analyzing this clip.

Andy asks Raquel and Sheena a question. Which of their co-stars do they find more attractive? Tom Sandoval or Tom Schwartz? Here's that clip. Or Sandoval three, two, one. You might have noticed that Andy sounded surprised and Sheena was also surprised. And Raquel was just sort of like

Yeah, that's my answer. But the reason her answer was shocking is because Raquel had spent the most recent season getting herself into trouble and a lot of drama because she had been making out with Tom Schwartz on camera. Despite the fact that he was getting a divorce from one of the other women on the show. And so people expected her to say, Tom Schwartz.

Because she's had a thing with him. Not to mention, Raquel is best friends with Ariana Maddox, who is Tom Sandoval's partner of nine years. And so that's why everyone's a little bit like, wait. What? It's a game, so it's quickly brushed off, like it's not that serious, it's not deep. But right after the women are done filming, Raquel gets a phone call. It's Ariana and she is Oriana. Pissed off. Oh no. But it's not about that game. Ariana is calling about something way worse.

She's just found out that Sandoval and the Shepherd. And Raquel have been having a months-long affair behind her back. No. So this is the Scandoval. This is the affair that hit the tabloids. This is Scandoval. From Wondery, I'm Sidney Battle. And I'm Matt Bellisai. And Is this and tell? I'm sure that you've heard about this feud, even if you weren't able to fully follow what was happening.

It briefly took over the internet and dare I say, the entire country, one nation united by hatred with pettiness and righteous parasocial anger for all. Like briefly, the Pledge of Allegiance. was changed to that during this time period. Like, yes, there are technically two sides in this feud, but in one corner you have a cool girl who's doing nothing but living up to the moniker.

And in the other, you have a cheating scumbag that maybe only has like a handful of people on planet Earth who would find him defensible in any way. The backlash to this was one of the few times where people were able to be loud. Loudly and rabidly parasocial without judgment. Love the opportunity to just dunk repeatedly on a scummy man. This is a story about a fall from grace. It's about adultery, the perils of putting your entire life on television.

and getting vengeance on behalf of a woman wronged. It's got all of the hit. It has Everything. Love it. Everyone was riding for Ariana Maddox, and everyone was also delighting in the downfall of Tom Sandoval, a man left. Left with virtually no one in his corner. I can't wait to find out why I should hate this man. I've seen his eagle rat looking face, and now I wanna know why it's bad.

At a certain point, he did just straight up start looking like the Grinch. I'm about to be proven wrong on this, but like. Still would. Matt, oh. Oh I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Oh no. We need to get you help. Listen, I want you to show me why what I just said is terrible. To fully understand the scandal You might need a healthy dose of brain worms, but we're diving in anyway. This is Tom Sandoval and Ariana Maddox, aka Scandaval.

So for the uninitiated, here's what you need to know about Tom, Ariana, and the Vanderpump Rules universe. It's a reality show that has a core cast of eight or so people. And they're all either former or current employees at SIR, which is Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant, and it stands for sexy unique restaurant. I feel like I knew that. Like that tidbit was in here somewhere in this brain, but I refuse to hold on to it. So every time I hear it, it's always a delight.

Each season covers a summer of their lives and the show's been on for 10 seasons now, so fans have truly seen these people living out their lives. It started when they were in their like mid-late twenties, and now we're 10 years down the line. For this story, there are a couple main cast members you need to know. First of all, Ariana Maddox. Blonde, cool girl, very, very serious about sketch comedy. Oh no. Yeah, but outside of that, like, cool girl.

She joined Vanderpump Rules as the only female bartender, and she's known for being pretty blunt and straightforward. Tom Sandoval, Ariana's life partner. He's got at this point a very distinctive mustache. And as we'll soon see, he is experiencing a midlife crisis. Uh at one point one of the other cast members calls him a worm with a mustache and it's pretty fitting.

There's Raquel Levis. She is an ex-pageant girl. And one of the biggest cries she has on the show is when she talks about how turning 26. Meant that she was too old to compete in pageants anymore, and now she has no sense of self. Relatable. She's very aloof. She gets called dumb a lot on the show. And then lastly, there's Tom Schwartz.

He is kind of tangential to this story, but he is Tom Sandoval's best friend and business partner. And For whatever reason, some people, Lisa Vanderpump included, seem to think he has a sort of boyish charm when in reality he's just like, to me at least, a walking itch. I'm glad I won't have to keep track of two toms because My brain can't.

Like that meme, Sir, a second Tom has hit the scandal. Yeah, for clarity, often they're called just Schwartz or Sandoval. Ariana and Sandoval have been dating since season two, when Tom left his girlfriend. Fellow cast member Kristen Doty for Ariana. They claim that there was no overlap, but for what it's worth, they did start dating like a couple days after that relationship ended. So No downtime. And Ariana and Tom were already very close friends and

had made out with each other while he was dating Kristen. So not entirely clean, like kind of messy. And so doomed from the start. Doomed from the start. Like you usually lose them how you get them. Mm-hmm. At this point in our timeline, they've been dating for nine years. Okay. And they're going strong. Like they're seen as kind of the grown-ups of the group. They've bought a house together. They have adult conversations about big things.

like Ariana's decision not to get married. She like doesn't believe in marriage. And they decide on being life partners instead. In general, these two handle conflict pretty well compared to the rest. But that's all about to fall apart. Oh no. I mean, I I knew it was coming.

So at the same time that Raquel is on Watch What Happens Live. Ariana Maddox is being the ultimate girlfriend, and by that I mean Suffering at a concert for her long-term boyfriend. Oh no, he sings. Oh you could call it that. He's performing with his cover band, which is an actual

Tom Sandoval paying thousands of dollars to perform karaoke at people? Uh At some point, maybe in the middle of Rick Springsteen's Jesse's Girl, wait for it, which on occasion Tom has changed to Schwartz's mom, where he brings out a photo of his best friend's mom. And serenades it. I wish I was kidding. What is the audience? Like, who is seeing this? Exactly. This is the same question I have. But I guess they do have an audience because

Tom drops his phone and someone hands his phone to Ariana for safekeeping. Oh no. And at that moment, And she's not usually this kind of girl. You have to understand. Like, and I believe that. I don't think Ariana's the kind of girl who's just like going through her man's phone idly. But she says that she has this intuitive feeling that she should look through it. Yeah, sure, I've had that feeling too with a guy's phone. Oh, I just have this intuition that I should snoop. Yep.

And when she does, that's when she sees a sexually explicit video from Raquel on Tom's phone. Oh no. Ariana's world stops. She doesn't believe that this can be true. She's freaking out a little bit, understandably. Mm-hmm. So Ariana calls Raquel and begs her to tell the truth. And Raquel says that she and Tom just kissed. So Ariana hangs up, and after Tom comes offstage, they go outside and she confronts him, and he admits that it was more than that. He admits that they slept together.

Everybody thus far has been incredibly honest when they're confronted. I mean, I guess not Raquel. Exactly. The next day, Ariana tells the Vanderpump Rules producers what Tom has done, and even though filming for season ten has been wrapped for months at this point, The producers know that this is a moment that they have to capture. So by the next day, literally forty-eight hours after finding out that Tom cheated on her,

They have cameras up and rolling at Ariana and Tom's house. I see. So this was all not on camera. The show was just a regular old show that she was at. Mm-hmm. She said, we will get Andy Cohen on the phone and he will show up with a steady cam if he has to. Just as filming starts back up, TMZ leaks the news about Tom and Ariana's split, and shit hits the fan. All of the cast members of Vanderpump Rules

Unfollow Sandoval and Raquel on social media. Wow. Except for Tom Schwartz, who I am convinced is a slug that somehow got transformed into a man. And I am like so dead ass about that. All of the other cast members post on Instagram and Twitter in solidarity with Ariana. And Vanderpump Rules cast member Lala Kent tells anyone going to Sandoval's concerts. that they should chant Ariana during his set. Another cast member, James Kennedy, encourages attendees to bring tomatoes and cabbage.

You want to get a good aim and you want to squeeze the tomato a little bit just so it's a little juicy before you throw it. Okay, they're going like medieval with their reactions. The rest of the world seems to follow suit using the hashtag T Mariana. I remember seeing the TMZ news and like people on Twitter were acting like there was a terrorist attack on Bravo headquarters. This was they really were huge.

And that was it. He just admitted to Ariana that he'd slept with Raquel and people were like, we're gonna tear this man down. I mean, if you reduce it to its simplest terms, like if you had to distill it, yes, that's it. It was announced that this man had an affair and everyone lost their shit. But to understand why it was such a big deal, we have to go through the whole story and deconstruct it. Okay.

The fact that this man looks like this man, I'm like, are we surprised that he did this? People are acting like this was so out of character. The thing is, if you look at the company that Tom keeps. All of his friends do stuff like this. All of his friends are bad guys. So why are you so surprised that he's like the people he surrounds himself with? Yeah. And I think it is really because he was the last man on that show who had a kind of redemption for his mistake.

Even if he left his girlfriend in season two for Ariana, he was the one who was more open about his feelings. Tom was seemingly more emotionally intelligent than the other guys. Tom was the one who wasn't afraid to play with sort of gender expectations. He is really seemingly secure in his masculinity enough to like play with it on the show. What I'm hearing is Standards for these men are so ridiculously low in the Vanderpump universe.

You're correct. That this man was relatively angelic. That night, Tom decides that it's still a good idea to perform with his cover band in Anaheim. And the And jeers when he takes the stage. And Tom asks the crowd, Have you ever been one of the most hated people in America? Oh no. He's one of those people that like revels in being the villain. He 1000% is getting off on the attention and still is. It's a narcissist's wet dream. At another point of the show, people in the crowd start chanting

He's so gross. We love her. We love her. He's taking this very well. So this was the night that the news broke. Yes. And he's like, we're going forward with the show. We cannot cancel it. We're going on stage. He probably wanted to do it even more so. They need to hear my cover of Jesse's Girl. Fans don't stop there. A ton of people start spamming Sandoval and Schwartz's new bar, which is called Schwartz and Sandy's. With with one star reviews.

And this prompts Tom to issue his first apology. He asks fans to not hold his own actions against Schwartz and everybody else associated with the restaurant. So if they could stop with the bad Yelp reviews, that'd be great. Who is basing whether or not they go to Schwartz and Sandy's on what Yelp says? Essentially, the tone of this apology is just like. Hey guys, don't be mean to Schwartz. He fails to mention Ariana

anywhere in this apology. Mm-hmm. Obviously, that doesn't go over well, so Tom tries again. You get the sense that it went through some revisions, if not a publicist. And we won't read the whole thing here because it is long, but he says in the middle of it, My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends.

My love for Ariana was stronger than any camera could ever have captured. He definitely didn't write that himself. Clearly not. He's more concerned about getting people to come to it whatever karaoke show he puts on. Despite knowing that every move he makes is being watched and also filmed, or perhaps because he knows that.

Tom decides that it's the right time to go to Raquel's apartment with the Vanderpump Rules crew. Uh-huh. They apparently shoot an on-camera kiss, although it never airs, thankfully. What we do see is a very awkward confession of love. Wait, so they went from oh we had a kiss. Two, we actually had sex. Two, now they're in love with one another. Mm-hmm. In a relationship, in love. Wow. What is clear is that Vanderpump Rules has a ratings bonanza on its hands.

I think it's important to note that the show was kind of on its last legs. Like I'd say season ten, the most recent season, was the weakest by far. And this just infused a whole new lifeblood into Vanderpump roles. On March 15th, just 12 days after the cheating scandal breaks, the show drops a mid-season sneak peek of the rest of season 10. And it looks like it's going to All about the couple's falling. The trailer ends with this soon to be iconic line from Ariana. Do you want anything?

For you to die. Ha ha ha. She's not on back. And the fans of the show go crazy. Oh, this man. Yeah, there's no coming back from that. Hello, I'm Matt Ford. And I'm Alice Levine. And we're the hosts of British Scandal. Now, Britain loves a royal scandal. Abdications, affairs, dodgy uncles. We've had the lot. But this series is about two brothers. Raised in palaces bound by tragedy, supposed So how did they do that?

barely speaking. Was it jealousy, the press, the firm? Or was this royal rift always inevitable? This is the story of Harrion Wills and the scandal that split the House of Wills. Follow British Scandal wherever you get your podcast. Listen early and ad free on Audible.

So now with the teaser trailer out and all of the drama surrounding everything, the world desperately wants to hear from Ariana for obvious reasons. And the paparazzi are staking out her house. They're even like Screaming things at her whenever she opens the door. It's very reminiscent of the early two thousands era of paparazzi. Wow. They're desperate. Yes. But Ariana is radio silent.

All we really get are a couple comments from friends saying that she's all right. And occasionally she'll appear on like their Instagram story because they're at her house comforting her. Mm-hmm. It sounds like Tom is just burying himself. So that's a pretty good strategy. But then Ariana makes her first First appearance post-breakup in Oaxaca, Mexico for a friend's wedding. News outlets obviously spot her, so Ariana decides to get out ahead of things and she posts on Instagram.

It's a gorgeous picture, and in her caption she thanks her friends. Friends, family, and fans for all of the support over the past couple weeks. And while she doesn't mention Tom by name, she does end her caption with the cryptic line, What doesn't kill me, better run. Okay. Threat. Ariana has chosen to take the high road and not say anything for now.

But Tom, well, he doesn't exactly follow that same game plan. Not surprised based on what I've learned thus far. Tom decides that it's a good decision to go on Howie Mandel's podcast. Howie Mandel does stuff. And give his side of the story. Of all of the places he could go, why?

Why Howie Mandel? I know. And it's not just Howie Mandel, it's the podcast he has with his daughter. Yeah. So even more baffling to me, like it would make more sense if he like talked to Howard Stern. Sure. Or literally anybody else. Us. So Tom is attempting to control the narrative, and he describes the first time he and Raquel kissed. He says it was magnetic and that he hadn't felt that way about someone in so long. Ugh. I don't even get what his angle is. He doesn't have like a defense.

Tom is claiming that, one, he and Ariana were in couples therapy, and apparently he advocated for them to get into it because he planned on breaking up with her in therapy. So that she wouldn't be able to steamroll him into staying in the relationship. Classic. This is a forty-year-old man. So he was on the way out. It didn't matter anyway. Sure. In his mind. Unclear if he actually communicated this at any point. Mm-hmm.

Two, he then says that he did actually break up with her on his own a few weeks before the cheating news broke. What? On Valentine's Day. This is him trying to make himself sound better. And number three. He also tells Howie that Ariana wanted him to fertilize embryos even though they were having problems. He claims that she asked this after he had broken up with her on Valentine's Day. Wow. What you have to know about this is that.

Since they began dating, Ariana has been pretty vocal about the fact that she does not want kids and Tom was the one really pushing for kids. So any talk of fertilizing embryos is theorized by a lot of fans and people around them that it was more so for Tom than even Ariana. Right. I feel like this is something that Tom has done before with his ex-girlfriend, Kristen Doty, where he attempts to control the narrative around his indiscretions and he tries to make the woman he's just left look.

crazy, abusive and unreasonable and meanwhile he's just poor little mistreated Tom. A pattern, is what we call that. Yeah, but unfortunately for Tom, It seems like Ariana has more supporters than his previous partner Kristen, and she also has more goodwill in the group, and I think with the public at large.

And I'll say a reputation as one of the more rational minds on the show. Uh-huh. Whereas Kristen was often painted as the quote unquote crazy one. So he's up against a very different opponent this time. Right. Pretty much no one is sympathetic to Sandoval's story for once the main focus is on the guy who's done wrong.

Raquel is getting hate, but at a certain point that sort of like peters off. I think because she checks herself into a mental health facility and people are like, Oh, okay. Uh but Tom is like, it's open season. So at the end of the interview, Howie jokes that Tom should shave his mustache so that he's less recognizable in public. And Tom's like, Okay, yeah, wanna shave it right now. And then they do it. Howie shaves Tom's mustache off.

on camera. Also obsessed with the Superman Clark Kent logic that if you shave off a mustache, this person will become unrecognizable. Maybe Tom is hoping that this can be the start of some kind of rebrand. Or perhaps he's just trying to portray himself as like this goofy fun guy. But spoiler alert, it doesn't work. Still not shocked.

About a month later, the Vanderpump Rules season 10 finale is set to air, and this is the final episode with all of the bonus footage filmed after the cheating scandal broke. They've added a couple episodes, including this one, that have the footage from after the scandal broke. And this episode is literally called hashtag Scandal. This is the big one. The day of the episode airing, page six.

just happens to confirm that Tom and Raquel have called it quits. All of this for nothing. If you believe it, I mean, neither of them make public statements. So it seems like it just might kind of be like an attempt to control the damage that's gonna happen. A little too late. It's a little too late for that. Yeah. Yeah. This could have come like a couple weeks ago. Because when the finale airs that night.

Well, if the world wasn't already against Tom Sandoval, they sure as hell are now. We finally get to see the full confrontation where Ariana tells him that she wants him to die. You remember that iconic soundbite we heard? Yeah. Now we hear the whole thing. And after that moment, Tom sits down across from her and she just absolutely eviscerates him. Yes.

Hear some of that. You're worth nothing. And I want you to feel that deep in your soul. I want you to hear those words coming from the mouth of the woman that stood by you and loved you. And was ready to build the rest of my life around you. I regret ever loving you. Wow. You're worth nothing. That is just the delivery. Beautiful. Cutting. Devastating. Yeah. Need that as a ringtone.

There's another moment in the episode where Sandoval goes over to Tom Schwartz's apartment, and the juxtaposition between that encounter and the one he's just had with Ariana is. Sandoval shows way more remorse for the position that he's put Schwartz in. It seems very clear that Sandval cares way more about this man than his partner of nine years. Yeah, there are even jokes on the show about Tom and Tom being the married ones.

Like, these two are tight. Sure, sure. And there's yet another scene where it appears that Tom is blaming Ariana for the affair because she never followed him or checked up on his lies. It's wild. But here's that clip right now, if you want to get really angry. Ariana never asks. Maybe like, I'm going to Schwartz's All she would have had to do is follow me and see that, you know, I'm not.

Oh my god. Yeah, that is some truly wild justification. You very well could have gotten in your vehicle and followed me to where I was cheating on you. You didn't? Okay. That's on you. This is like gaslighting masterclass. I'm telling you, he is so insidious. So Ariana puts her foot down with their group of friends, which, you know, is the cast of Vanderpump Rules. And she says that she won't be friends with anyone who's still friends with Tom. And that includes Tom Schwartz.

who it's worthwhile to note, Ariano was a groomsman in Tom Schwartz's wedding. Like they're close. Okay. Sure. So after all this airship. Ariana finally feels like she can do a sit-down interview and she chooses to go on call her daddy. Of course. Which I guess at this point is the closest thing that Gen Z has to Barbara Walters. That is so true. And she talks host Alex Cooper through the entire relationship. She reveals that Tom brought Raquel home to St. Louis.

to visit his family with him while still dating Ariana. No. Wow. According to Ariana, Raquel spent the night at their house, but she was fine with it because she trusted that Raquel was truly just a friend. And Raquel would do this even when Ariana was out of town. But Alex poses.

This question. Do you think they ever had sex while you were upstairs? Yes, I do. I think they had sex in my guest room while I was sleeping in my own bed, that he and I went to bed in together and then he left the bed and went to the guest room and fucked her. Yes, I believe that. I mean wild if true. I would believe it. That would be truly insidious. if he actually did that.

Keep in mind, in that timeline that they've provided for the affair, uh huh. What they're not saying is the reason Ariana wasn't there is because her dog had just died and she was like bereft. Mm. This is a dog that she'd had for eighteen years. And Raquel decided to crash a boys' night out where Tom was there.

And that is supposedly the night they first got together, where Ariana was grieving the death of her beloved dog, and Raquel decided that that was prime time. Tom was like, yep, let's do it. I'm going back into that frame of mind of like, this man sounds like he was always trash, and why are we surprised that he cheated on her? If you watch now.

It is much easier to see the signs from season one that this guy is just no good. But for people who watched it slowly over ten years, I can understand being lulled into this sense of like, Tom is so much better than all the others. No, he's just like the guys he surrounds himself with. It sounds like it. Tom maintains that this isn't true, that he never slept with Raquel while Ariana was asleep in the house. But he's not just releasing press statements or firing back. He's got a whole lot.

Three part reunion to survive next. Oh, the Bravo reunions. Test of spirit. Matt, does the day May twenty fifth, twenty twenty three mean anything to you? It probably should, but No It's probably better that it doesn't. That is the day that Peacock releases the full, uncensored version of the first part of the three part reunion. Uh-huh. The next two parts release over the following two weeks. but we're gonna talk about them as one event for the sake of our collective sanity. That sounds right.

So, during the reunion, Ariana rips into both Tom and Raquel. And before we even play this, you have to remember that Raquel was. truly one of Ariana's best friends. And so this anger is really coming from a place of loving someone, not just Tom, but loving Raquel too. And then just being completely betrayed.

So here's Ariana addressing Tom and Raquel. Fuck yourself with the fucking cheese grater. Fuck you. You fucking suck. You're disgusting. And I wish nothing but the worst fucking shit that could ever happen to a person on you. Fuck yourself with a fucking cheese grater? Beautiful language. Quite the visual. Wow. Meanwhile, Tom and Raquel try to stick to a very specific timeline of their relationship. They say that they slept together once and then put the relationship to bed.

I still love the idea that they've copped everything, but that there's still a version of events that they're like, this is the best version that makes us look the least bad. So we need to stick to that. It's like no matter what, you're still all bad. This is possibly the biggest showdown we've had between two feudsters, just in terms of having both of them in the same room and contractually obligated to talk about the scandal. I mean, can you imagine if Any other scandal we've covered?

Where they had to get on a couch with Andy Cohen and spill. There are a million moments that we can dissect here, but there's one particularly painful one where Tom is asked if he slept with anyone else. Since his affair with Raquel started and Ariana jumps in and answers and Tom just can't help himself. You know who he did sleep with after him and Raquel started sleeping together? Me. Yeah, she kept her t shirt on, it was really hot.

I mean, obsessed with the implication of that line, which is because she kept her t-shirt on, it wasn't hot, therefore it didn't even count. Yeah, it's this bizarre gross attempt to discredit their intimacy. And the rest of the cast immediately tears into him for it. Like. They've been letting him have it the entire reunion, but they go in extra hard on this one. But also any semblance of this timeline that they're trying to put forward, they're like, Oh, this was just

We were in love. Mm-hmm. Wrong. Wrong. They ask Tom at a point of the reunion if he's in love with Raquel, and it is a long, silent beat. So long that everyone else on stage is like, just answer, do you love her? Just say it. Like, do you love her? And eventually he does say yes, but I mean the pause is Brutal. Oh, a pause is never good. And then at the end of the reunion, we get this like bonus confessional moment with Raquel. She sits down, she's like

She's really uncomfortable. And she goes on to tell the producer that she lied because Tom asked her to. And they sort of press her. They're like, What did he pressure you to lie about? Yeah. And Raquel says. First and Mom had been sleeping together regularly.

Okay. It wasn't like they slept together and put it to bed like he said. Right. It was a full-on affair. Wow. She also admits that she did go back with Tom to his hometown of St. Louis. Oh no. And She admits that they had sex in Tom and Ariana's shared home while Ariana. at her grandmother's funeral. No. First of all, Ariana, she can't catch a break. Her dog died, her grandma died. Like, I know. She's giving this man too many opportunities to cheat.

It's a clear shift in the power dynamics at play because, with this interview, Tom has lost control. Raquel is not on his side anymore. He's alone in his narrative. Yeah. Any semblance of him as puppet master, gone. So after the reunion, people start to back off of Raquel, mainly because they're worried about her emotional state. Meanwhile, Tom is still the internet's new punching bag. Brian Cranston does a dramatic reading of Ariana's monologue eviscerating Tom. You're worth nothing.

And I want you to feel it. Deep in your soul. Why is Brian Cranston in it now? There's even a joke at the White House Correspondence dinner about Sandoval. Anybody at this point who is doubting the national takeover of this story, it doesn't get clearer than that. No. A few days after the final part of the reunion airs.

Ariana jets off to New York to meet up with her new man, a fitness trainer named Daniel Wei. They'd met at a wedding right after the cheating scandal broke, and apparently they hit it off. So this was a nine-year relationship and it just blew up in her face and now in a matter of what weeks?

Yep. Well I don't really know where it's going, but he seems nice enough. Okay. And I'm happy that she, you know, has something to distract her during this time. Yeah. Besides the money that she's about to be getting. All right. I'll I'll reserve judgment. She says that she's taking it slow and that she's having fun, but Daniel, I think, is moving at a different speed. He's clearly very into her because When she lands in New York, he surprises her with tickets.

To GovBall. Ugh. Which is the Governor's Ball Music Festival. What a horrible surprise. Yes, as a former attendee of GovBall, I don't want to be surprised. They meet up with friends and they dance to acts like Little Nas X and Sophie Tucker. Ariana is posting on Instagram and she is proving to the world that she is so over Tom Sandoval. It always works. Posting a photo with a new man literal weeks after your relationship fell apart.

And even better news, Ariana is cashing in on this whole ordeal. The ideal I think result from being cheated on that you get a lot of money. True, but th I mean that is always the sort of side effect of being on a reality TV show is that like you get to cash in on whatever is happening on that show. You sell your soul.

Bravo gets to use every part of your life and then you can sell whatever you want on Instagram. True. And she does a promotional deal for a vibrator giveaway with the catchphrase, gotta change up your vibe. True. She gets cast in a lifetime movie. She gets brand deals, including a Duracell commercial that directly makes fun of Tom. And a T-Mobile ad that does the same. And of the Vanderpump Rules friend group. Ariana certainly wins out. Everyone sided with her, and meanwhile

Tom's out touring with his cover band, desperately trying to rehab his image. Has the mustache come back? Not to my knowledge. So he's still walking around stashless. Looking like a scrawny albino grinch. Tom is doing the obvious next step for problematic people with very high profile. He is going on the show Special Forces, just like Jamie Lynn Spears. He's gonna be on it with Jojo Siwa.

So many important lessons here. First of all, don't date a coworker. Don't cheat on one coworker with another coworker. Never. And certainly never trust a man with a mustache. Oh my god. And Unless he's getting fresh manicures weekly, just say no. And I think also maybe it would be better if you didn't live out your entire On reality TV. This is Tom Sandoval and Ariana Maddox. The show is hosted by me, Sydney Battle. And me, Matt Belisai.

We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Vultures: Every Detail of the Vanderpump Rules Scandaval Drama in Chronological Order by Hannah Sellinger, and Varieties Inside How Vanderpump Rules. captured the Standoval. Kate Arthur. Alex Burns wrote this episode. Our lead producer is Kate Downey. Yasmin Ward is our producer, and Jake Dvorsky is our associate producer. Our story editors are Alex Burns and Greg Castro. Peter Johansson is our senior producer.

Sound design by James Morgan. Audio editing by Steve Macer. Additional audio support by Adrian Tapia. Gabrielle Drulet was our fact checker. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Freeze on Sync. Ryan Lohr is our senior managing producer. Sophia Martins and Sarah Kenny Corrigan are our coordinating producers. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelo, Stephanie and Marshall Lewy for Wondery.