Tom Sandoval Explains Why He Sent His Co-Stars Money

Tom Sandoval set the record straight after his co-star Scheana Shay shared a story about him on  “Vanderpump Rules.”

On the “Vanderpump Rules” season 11 episode “Saw it on the Graham,”  Shay told co-star Lala Kent that Sandoval saved her financially in 2020 by sending her money unexpectedly. “During the pandemic, I woke up to several thousand dollars in my account,” Scheana shared. “He knew I was struggling at the time. My podcast got canceled. I’m pregnant. I had no income. And he was there for me in a time when no one else was.”

On the “Vanderpump Rules Aftershow,” Sandoval downplayed his kind act. “I did that because I knew Scheana was struggling with money. And she’s my friend,” he said. “I don’t want it to be a big deal with her either. I want her to literally forget it happened,” he added.

“I’ve done many things like that for many people,” Sandoval explained. “I don’t want people to think it’s me, like, buying their loyalty or anything like that.”

Sandoval also shared that his favorite thing to do on his birthday is give “$100 to a homeless person.” His middle-class upbringing made him realize that he doesn’t need all of the money he makes. “I grew up lower middle class,” the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner said. “And once you make a certain amount of money, like, your happiness doesn’t really… I know that like what’s not as big of a deal for me can make a huge impact on somebody. And so, like why not? And that’s like no big deal, you know. Like I can, I can do that.”

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Kristen Doute Shared a Surprising Story About Tom Sandoval

Sandoval is still on the outs with most of his co-stars more than a year after his shocking cheating scandal with Raquel Leviss was uncovered. But when Shay’s comment about Sandoval’s past generous act aired, his ex Kristen Doute shared a similar story.

Speaking on her “Sex, Love and What Else Matters” podcast on March 6, Doute said when she watched Shay’s scene it was the first time in a long time that she saw “like a little glimpse of like ‘Ohh yeah there’s that guy who does nice things for people.’”

She also shared that Sandoval didn’t talk publicly about his kind act and wasn’t looking for a pat on the back.

Doute noted that the season before she left “Vanderpump Rules” for good, she has been “demoted that season from an episodic paid cast member to a day rate.” She appeared in scenes set at a Witches of WeHo party with Stassi Schroeder and Katie Maloney.

“So that episode I was in, I did get paid,”  she said. “But Tom Sandoval happened to be there and he was in it for a blink of an eye like half a second, which didn’t even cross my mind. But when that episode aired and he was in it for just a second, he got paid his episodic rate, Tom and I, we’ve never been super, super tight friends since our breakup but we were like buddies and Ariana and I were friends. And so I randomly, without telling me, I get this PayPal for a few thousand dollars from Tom Sandoval. And I’m like ‘What the [expletive] is this? It has to be a mistake.”

Doute said she texted Sandoval to tell him he made a mistake in his PayPal, and she sent the money back to him. He replied that he meant to send it to her and was going to send it again. “Which I didn’t accept it, so everyone knows,” Doute clarified. “But kind of now I wish I would have. But he said to me, he did not think it was fair that he got paid his full episodic payment for being in the episode for a split second when I carried that episode on my back and only got paid nickels in comparison.”

Doute admitted that when Shay shared her story of Sandoval’s kindness it hit her emotionally. “I really felt for Scheana in that moment because that was a genuine move that Tom made and the same thing that he did with me. I don’t really think anyone knows that he did that.”

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Katie Maloney & Ariana Madix Had a Different Take on Sandoval’s Acts of Kindness

Sandoval did a public act of kindness when he helped fund James Kennedy’s lavish $25,000 proposal to Leviss. The bar owner shelled out thousands of dollars for Kennedy two years before Leviss became his mistress.  In February 2023, Kennedy told  “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” that Sandoval told him he didn’t regret spending so much money on the festival-themed proposal.

“He’s just that good of a friend, you know,” Kennedy said. “Like, that’s Sandoval. He does acts of kindness in the moment and I don’t think he’d feel right asking me back for money.”

But on the “Vanderpump Rules Aftershow,” Sandoval’s ex, Ariana Madix, saw a different side as she addressed Shay’s story about Sandoval sending her money. ”It’s sad because it feels like because of that she has this feeling of like owing him,” she said.

Katie Maloney agreed that it felt like “leveraging in a way that’s just not cool.” “Like you shouldn’t be buying people’s loyalty or friendship,” she said. “I would have sent it right back and been like ‘I can’t.’ I think he does it because it makes him feel good. I think he likes to be like ‘that’ guy.”

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