Tom Sandoval attends the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.Photo:Greg Doherty/Getty
Greg Doherty/Getty
Tom Sandoval’s life looks drastically different than it did this time last year, and he’s taking his time to adjust to his new reality.
The Bravo star says that immediately after his elimination from the Fox show on Monday night’s finale, “I had to go right into filming season 11 ofVanderpump Rules. So it was no downtime.”
Tammie/AFF-USA/Shutterstock; Cindy Ord/Bravo via Getty Images; Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images
“I’ve never really been an outsider with everyone like I was,” he says. “So that’s going to be, I think, interesting for people to see.”
Sandoval admits that it was “definitely one of my probably hardest seasons to film, ever.”
Despite aswift alienation from his castmatesthat lasted for months, theTomTom barco-owner tells PEOPLE he’s been reconnecting with some familiar faces both on and off screen since the scandal broke in early March.
“I’m just taking my time,” he says of how he’s currently navigating friendships. “You’ll see [on] this coming season ofVanderpump Ruleshow a lot of that stuff sort of plays out.”
Nicole Weingart/Bravo
At one point,Brock Daviesstood up for him and insisted they remain “friends,” thenLala Kentalso gave Sandoval credit for enduring fans' vitriol.
“In a weird, weird way, I don’t know if it’s respect, but with everyone really hating on Tom, he still went out, he still performed shows, he’s sitting in front of y’all getting booed,” she told the crowd. “If I were in his position, I’d tell y’all to go f— off.”
Lala Kent, James Kennedy, Katie Maloney, Ariana Madix, Andy Cohen, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz and Scheana Shay attend the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ season 10 reunion.Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images
Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images
“It was a very, very difficult season,” said Kent, 33. “We’ve never had a divide like this in the group that you literally cannot repair.”
Scheana Shay, who was seen sobbing in a finale confrontation with Sandoval just months ago, has also shown up for her former friend in recent weeks after admitting she’dhad a hard time cutting tieswith him after he betrayed her closer friend Madix, 38.
When asked aboutattending an impromptu gathering in Sandoval’s room, the 38-year-old Scheanigans host told a fan at BravoCon: “I don’t say no to an after party.”
Two months earlier, she admitted on her podcast that she “never thought he was a bad guy. I have personally really struggled with all this because I’m like, ‘Yes, you did a really bad thing. But you weren’t a bad friend to me. But then what you have done has affected me, so it’s just changed the entire dynamic of our group.”
Scheana Shay and Tom Sandoval arrive at the E! People’s Choice Awards in November 2018.Charley Gallay/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Charley Gallay/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
During his stint onSpecial Forces, Sandoval was open with his castmates — includingNick Viall,Jojo SiwaandTyler Cameron— about the scandal, which had broken just weeks before he joined the show, as he called it “a pretty juicy f—ing scandal.”
“I had an affair, and it just blew up,” he said in an October episode. “People were messaging me paragraphs of just like vicious, like, so visceral, like, hatred.”
In a confessional, Sandoval added, “Before this whole scandal, I would meet people who had probably seen me onVanderpump Rules, and they’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s so cool.’ And then now, people think I’m a complete narcissist, creeper vibes.”
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Special Forces: World’s Toughest Testcan be streamed in full on Hulu, andVanderpump Rulesis available in full on Peacock.
source: people.com
