Just when you think the Scandoval couldn’t get any worse – Tom Sandoval tries to mansplain and blame his ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix for his affair with Raquel Leviss.
Tom appeared on the April 11 episode of the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, where he claims that Ariana turned a “blind eye” to his affair and growing romance with Raquel.
“She had heard things and seen things about Raquel but was very much turning a blind eye or just trusting me, I guess,” Tom said, adding that he and Ariana had become “distant” towards the end of their relationship. “I was seeing Raquel as often as I could — which I know sounds horrible — and FaceTiming her all the time and, like, Ariana didn’t even notice because that’s just how separate our lives were.”
He continued, “I had to actually tell her, ‘Have you not noticed how distant I’ve been lately?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, you have?’ … She didn’t even notice because that’s just how our relationship was. We had separate lives.”
In one instance, Tom alleges that he approached Ariana about breaking up, and she didn’t take the idea well; he claims she threatened to leave Pump Rules and move away from Los Angeles.
“When I said hypothetically, ‘If we broke up,’ she basically was like, you know, ‘Definitely not going to the reunion, quitting the show, f—k the sandwich shop’ — which she’s supposed to open up with Katie [Maloney],” the 39-year-old alleged. “And [she said], ‘We’re selling the house, and I’m deleting all social media, and I’m moving away.’”
On the other hand, Tom then says he broke up with Ariana on Valentine’s Day 2023 – two weeks before his affair with Raquel was made public. TBH, Tom’s story isn’t making sense.
“I had already broken up with her two weeks earlier, and I told her, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t have to post anything on social media, like, let’s talk through this,’” the Tom Tom co-owner claims.
He explains that the two decided to keep the breakup private and off social media so they could “figure out a way to navigate this that helps us both out and makes it easier,” however, Tom insists that Ariana was in “denial” about the split.
“A couple [of] days later, I sit down to talk with her again, and she’s like, ‘I’m not letting you leave me, you’re gonna have to force me out of this relationship,’ and I was like, ‘Ariana, I don’t think I can be faithful in a relationship with you right now,’” he continued. “She’s like, ‘If you break up with me, you will be effectively ending my life. I didn’t know what to do. She was in complete denial and not accepting it.”
As for how Ariana discovered his affair with Raquel, Tom said, “My phone falls out of the pocket, she sees it and, obviously, was the most upset and angry I’ve ever seen her, but I think she went through the phone just to see if anything happened with somebody in Miami.”
“But we were broken up, she knew we were broken up,” he asserts.
Speaking of the Scandoval of it all, Tom then detailed how his affair with Raquel began. He explains that the two “had hung out two nights … like, one night, and then a couple [of] nights later, we hung out again.”
“We literally talked ’til the sun came up the first night with my friend Brett,” he continued, pointing out that this happened after “guys night” at the Mondrian hotel in Los Angeles, which was crashed by Raquel and co-star Scheana Shay.
He and Raquel then hung out at SUR’s See You Next Tuesday night which led to them hanging out and “talking” at Tom and Ariana’s house.
“We just kissed. It was magnetic,” Tom said of his first kiss with Raquel. “We were talking, moving closer, and as we were talking, as time went on, we would just start talking closer and closer, and then all of a sudden, we’re kissing.”
“I felt something that I hadn’t felt in so long, like, emotionally,” he shared. Tom went on to call Raquel “so awesome,” “so kind,” “smart,” “witty,” “fun,” “beautiful,” and “f–king amazing.”
When it comes to the current status of his relationship with Raquel, Tom said, “We’re not putting any label on it. We’re just kind of taking a break.”
He also denied that they are currently engaged in a friends-with-benefits type of relationship.
“Not right now,” Tom claimed.
Pump Rules airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm on Bravo.
Thoughts on this all? Sound off below!
Tom Sandoval claimed that Ariana turned a blind eye to his affair and growing romance with Raquel Leviss. He also mentioned that they had become distant towards the end of their relationship.
According to Tom Sandoval, he claims to have broken up with Ariana two weeks before his affair with Raquel became public. He stated that they decided to keep the breakup private and off social media to figure out a way to navigate the situation.
Tom Sandoval mentioned that Ariana discovered his affair when his phone fell out of his pocket and she saw it. He clarified that they were already broken up at that time, and Ariana knew about their breakup.
