Sandoval ‘Screwed Up’ Revealing Ariana’s Mental Health Struggles
Tom Sandoval is admitting he has regrets over his actions amid Scandoval.
On the April 30 episode of Vanderpump Rules, Scheana Shay asked the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner, 41, about his ex Ariana Madix moving on with Daniel Wai.
“I found out, I was like, well, that’s really good because I was always worried about her mentally with this whole situation,” he explained. “I just feel she’s there. She has somebody with her and like that she would just be better and be able to handle it better.”
Scheana, 38, then questioned if Sandoval could apologize for “weaponizing” Ariana’s mental health struggles by discussing them publicly in the aftermath of Scandoval. (As fans may recall, Sandoval said Ariana had “threatened to f—ing kill herself” when he tried to break up with her.)
In a confessional, Scheana admitted that she wanted Sandoval to see the error of his ways. “I’m trying to get Sandoval to understand that exposing private details about her mental health makes things so much worse,” she said. “If he could genuinely apologize, maybe there’s some hope in this group of moving forward one day.”
She continued to press Sandoval about making amends for his actions, saying, “I’m just asking if you could say, ‘You know what, maybe I shouldn’t have said that to deflect from my actions and make an excuse for it.’ When at the end of the day, she just wanted to make it work.”
“She didn’t freeze her eggs just for herself,” she added of Ariana, 38. “She didn’t go to couples therapy just for herself. She didn’t buy a house just for herself. She did all of these things to build a life with you. And that’s it.”
Sandoval then admitted that he should have handled the situation differently.
“Me explaining where I was emotionally and mentally has come across as blaming Ariana,” he told Scheana. “I’m not. I screwed up and no matter how our relationship went south in ways, she didn’t deserve that.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Ariana and Scheana’s husband Brock Davies had a conversation about forgiveness amid the fallout of the scandal.
“Forgiveness isn’t accepting what he’d done,” he told Ariana. “Forgiveness is like, giving yourself the ability to focus on the good things that you haven’t gotten on around you.”
She countered, “In order to move on happily with your life and focus on the good, you 100% do not have to forgive anyone who’s traumatized you.”
“There’s power to me in hurt and anger and in female emotion and being able to have that and not being put in this position of you have to take the high road or be stoic or be ‘strong’ at every moment in order to have power,” she added. “I think there’s power and all those emotions and I stand by that.”
She further explained in a confessional, “The notion that you have to forgive or to move on in your life, that’s outdated therapy, gray rocking and going no contact is literally the only way to avoid the s—, the manipulation, all of it. It’s me, I’m a gray rock.”
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Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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