Lisa Vanderpump Addresses Criticisms Over Her Support of Tom Sandoval

Lisa Vanderpump

Getty Lisa Vanderpump

The highly anticipated finale of “Vanderpump Rules” season 10 aired on May 17 and it showed the cast of the hit Bravo show dealing with the aftermath of Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix’s breakup after Madix discovered that he’d been having a months-long affair with Raquel Leviss.

During the episode, Lisa Vanderpump had Sandoval over at her home and viewers saw him break down over the situation as Vanderpump listened to him and then comforted him during his meltdown. Afterward, the RHOBH alum defended her actions as some fans accused her of being too nice to the Schwartz & Sandy’s owner.

“Everybody else was chastising him,” she explained in an interview with Us Weekly. “I didn’t feel like joining the pack. I mean, it seemed so kind of slanted. Everything was against him, you know?” Vanderpump said she’s known Sandoval for a long time and while she was “of course” condemning his actions, she didn’t want to yell at him after everyone else already had.

“That’s why I said, ‘You’re not a bad person. You just did a bad thing,'” she explained. “And my heart was always with Ariana,” she added. Madix herself spoke about Vanderpump’s meeting with Sandoval and said with a smile on “Watch What Happens Live” that she was maybe a little too nice to her ex-boyfriend in the finale, but she said she understood the situation and “love[s] Lisa so dearly.”

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Lisa Vanderpump Said Tom Sandoval’s Meltdown Was a Lot ‘Worse’ Than Viewers Saw in the Season 10 Finale

Vanderpump spoke more about her conversation with Sandoval and said his meltdown at Villa Rosa was a lot “worse” than what made the final edit of the show. The “Vanderpump Rules” executive producer told Us Weekly, “The man that was sitting in my living room, it felt like a broken man. So I just didn’t want to pile on, to be honest.”

The restauranteur also told the publication that she sees the show’s stars as “[her] children in some way… They’ve grown up with me.” She said, “We were all very upset. We felt duped. We were disgusted, we were hurt — all of those things.”

Vanderpump also claimed that Sandoval’s meltdown was “actually worse than we saw” in the finale. “Was it worse than that? Yes,” she continued. “And that scares me when somebody’s just so depressed. But I think it was a moment that it all kind of came to a head there with me, and he knew that, you know, he’d lost so much from this whole choice that he’d made.”


Ariana Madix Said She Didn’t Unfollow Lisa Vanderpump After the Season Finale

Vanderpump shared that she saw Sandoval very recently, “just a few days ago,” in a group environment. However, she told Us Weekly, “There’s nothing more to say that hasn’t been said.” She revealed that the reunion taping took 12 hours and a lot was said at that time. The three-part “Vanderpump Rules” reunion will begin airing on May 24.

Madix recently shot down speculation that she unfollowed Vanderpump after the finale aired as a result of her conversation with Sandoval. “Neither of us followed each other,” Madix commented on a screenshot showing that the women weren’t following each other on Instagram.

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