Heavy/Getty/NBCUniversal Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix and Kristen Doute.
Kristen Doute shared a story about the aftermath of her breakup with Tom Sandoval – and it’s something she never told him or his then-girlfriend, Ariana Madix.
On the April 3, 2024 episode of her podcast “Balancing Act,” Doute revealed that after she snooped and found details about a trip that Sandoval booked with Madix, she almost canceled it without telling them. “I actually don’t even know if I’ve ever told Ariana this or Tom to be honest,” Doute admitted to her listeners.
Doute dated Sandoval for six years before he left her for Madix. The couple’s split played out in the early seasons of “Vanderpump Rules” and it got ugly. Doute tried to break the new couple up and even flew in a woman from Miami— aka “Miami Girl”—with claims that Sandoval cheated on Madix with her during a guys’ trip to Las Vegas. At the time, Madix claimed not to believe it. She stayed with Sandoval for 9 years, until he cheated on her with Raquel Leviss in 2023.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kristen Doute Explained How She Almost Ruined Tom Sandoval & Ariana Madix’s 1st Trip as a Couple
PeacockAriana Madix.
On her podcast, Doute referenced a scene from the “Vanderpump Rules” season 10 finale, titled “Scandoval,” in which a broken-hearted Madix was drinking a bottle of wine that she said was from her first trip ever with Sandoval. The trip was to the Napa Valley. Doute shared that she had a story related to the wine.
“Do you wanna know a secret?” Doute said. “So when Tom broke up with me and he started dating Ariana … I used to obviously hack into Tom’s e-mail.” She clarified that it wasn’t really “hacking” as she had the password.
“I got into his e-mail, and I saw that he had booked a trip to Napa on New Year’s Day of that year,” she continued. “So, I called my mom and I was like mom he’s [expletive] taking Ariana to Napa. We just broke up a month ago and I’m still in this apartment.”
Doute said her mom asked her what she was going to do about it. “So we sort of conspired, my mom offered that maybe I could just call the company and cancel their hot air balloon reservation, their hotel reservation, their wine tasting reservation,” Doute revealed.
“I didn’t do it,” she added. “That’s [expletive] growth. But I almost canceled the [expletive] Napa trip and then they were going to drive all the way to Napa and they were going to be like, ‘We’re here for our trip’ and they would be like ‘We don’t have a reservation for you.’ But I didn’t do it.”
Kristen Doute Stood By Ariana Madix’s Side Following Scandoval
PeacockKristen Doute.
While Doute and Madix were once enemies, they made amends over the years. Doute wrote about it in her 2020 book “He’s Making You Crazy,” where she admitted she made a choice “to let everything go.” “A girl can’t actually steal someone’s boyfriend,” she wrote. “He made a free-willed choice to leave me, and a free-willed choice to be with her. I needed to let them be happy.”
Doute even told Us Weekly that she began to like hanging out with Madix. “I really love Ariana,” she said as their friendship began to blossom.
The James Mae founder ultimately returned to “Vanderpump Rules” for the “Scandoval” episode, where she consoled Madix following Sandoval’s betrayal. During a May 2023 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live,” Doute defended Madix against people who felt she deserved to be cheated on for how she allegedly started her relationship with Sandoval. “It is not the same thing,” Doute said. “[Ariana] didn’t deserve it. Not at all. Tom and I were together almost six years, [but] we should’ve broken up after a year or two. He and Ariana have been together almost a decade. They own a home together.”
READ NEXT: Another ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star is Moving to The Valley