Ariana Madix says her days of filming Vanderpump Rules with her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval and ex-friend Raquel Leviss are over.
Speaking in a new interview with The New York Times on Thursday, the reality star, 37, revealed that she isn’t up for filming with the pair following the exposure of their months-long affair.
“I have nothing to say to either of them,” Madix said of her former boyfriend of nine years, 40, and Leviss, 28. “Our show is very real and follows a real group of friends, and neither of them are in the group of friends, so, good luck.”
Madix’s comments come after Alex Baskin, the executive producer on Vanderpump Rules, said producers and the network they were taking “a minute” to figure out casting for next season and are currently taking a small break from filming following the cheating scandal.
Baskin told Variety, “it’s hard for anybody to say yes right now” to filming a new season of the Bravo show after a taxing reunion marked by surprise “revelations that not all of them know now. So we need a little space.”
He went on to say that the cast needs to see all three parts of the reunion, the first of which airs on May 24. “I had thought that we needed cameras on them right away,” he told the publication. “And I now think we need a minute.”
Weighing on whether Leviss may return, Baskin added, “We have had those conversations with her reps. She and people around her have to feel OK about it. And so that’s why I also think that waiting a little bit helps.”
Reflecting on filming the reunion on March 23, Madix told the NY Times how the rest of the cast came together against Sandoval and Leviss. “It was kind of a weird day because I feel like most of the time in any other reunion, we go through the whole season. But in this reunion, it was really just everybody against one or against two [cast members],” she explained. “We’ve never been united like that ever.”
As for whether or not they can ever redeem themselves, Madix continued, “I think any chance that either of them separately had for that ended when they started giving trash interviews victimizing themselves, her TMZ [interview] and his Howie Mandel [interview]. I think had they not done or said all of those horrible things, maybe one day, but I think the answer ultimately is no. In our friend group, the answer is no.”
On Wednesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Madix also said that forgiving Leviss or Sandoval is “not happening.”
During her interview with TMZ, Leviss claimed that kissing Sandoval’s best friend and business partner Tom Schwartz — who was previously married to their VPR costar Katie Maloney — was not “a cover-up” for the affair. “I genuinely had an interest in Tom Schwartz and there’s a genuine curiosity there, so it wasn’t a cover-up,” she said.
Meanwhile, in his interview on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, Sandoval claimed that he split from Madix two weeks before his affair with Leviss was made public on March 3.
The Schwartz and Sandy’s co-owner said he “did break up with her [Madix] on Valentine’s Day,” but Madix was “completely in denial” about him wanting to end the relationship. “We were broken up,” he insisted. “She knew we were broken up. We didn’t tell anybody, but she knew.”
As for Sandoval and Leviss, despite reports the two have not broken up, a source told PEOPLE on Wednesday — noting that they were never together in the first place.
“Tom and Raquel never put a label on their relationship to begin with,” a insider said. “After their affair was exposed and the blowback they received, they said that before defining things, they needed to take time to address the issues in their own lives that drove them to this in the first place. And that’s where things still are.”
“Raquel has been away in a mental health treatment facility, and hasn’t come home yet. Tom has been on the road, focusing on his music,” the source added. “There’s no split because they were never a couple.”
Source : People