After months of relative silence on #Scandoval, “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix has opened up about the cheating scandal that rocked reality television.
For the uninitiated, Madix’s nearly decade-long relationship with co-star Tom Sandoval blew up in March when it was revealed he had been having a months-long affair with her best friend and their mutual co-star, Raquel Leviss.
A recently taped new finale for the series’ 10th season — which addresses how the friend group reacted to learning about the affair — aired on May 17, and was followed by Madix’s first sit-down interview on the topic with Andy Cohen on his “Watch What Happens Live” show.
Madix was game to answer anything Cohen threw at her, even chatting briefly about her rumored new boyfriend (“I am very happy and very satisfied,” she said).
When Cohen asked Madix about Sandoval’s revelation in the show’s finale that he cheated on her another time that was never discussed in the series, she admitted she wasn’t sure exactly who the other woman was but said “I have a guess,” adding that it was not someone in the “Rules” filming universe.
Cohen also asked about the seasons-old “Miami girl” storyline, in which a woman confronted Sandoval in front of Madix and claimed she slept with him on a trip to Miami. At the time, both Sandoval and Madix denied it, but she admitted that she was covering for him.
“They slept together,” she said. “It was before he and I were exclusive, and I didn’t want people to think the absolute worst of the man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, so I defended him.”
When asked what it would take for her to forgive Sandoval or Leviss, she said simply, “That’s not happening.”
When asked in a New York Times profile that dropped after Cohen’s interview if she would ever film with Leviss or Sandoval again, she did not mince words.
“No,” she said. “I have nothing to say to either of them. Our show is very real and follows a real group of friends, and neither of them are in the group of friends, so, good luck.”
