Credit: Instagram
Kristen Doute confirmed she was secretly demoted ahead of the seventh season of Vanderpump Rules on the latest episode of her podcast.
While reacting to Tom Sandoval, 41, giving Scheana Shay, 38, thousands of dollars amid her pandemic struggles, which Scheana spoke about on Tuesday’s Pump Rules, breaking down as she discussed her mixed feelings about their relationship, Kristen, 41, looked back on a “genuine” financial gesture Sandoval made towards her after their split.
“Scheana brought up the money that Tom gave her during the pandemic. And that was the first time in a long time that I felt, I don’t know how to describe the feeling. It wasn’t sympathy for Tom but it was a little glimpse of like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s that guy who does nice things for people,’” Kristen said on the March 6 episode of Sex, Love, and What Else Matters with Kristen Doute, via Reality Ops on Instagram, reacting to the events of Tuesday’s episode.
“This isn’t something I’ve ever heard Tom talk about publicly. So it’s like he didn’t do it to be patted on the back,” she noted.
Looking back at one of her final seasons on Pump Rules, Kristen said that after being demoted, Sandoval attempted to send her thousands of dollars to make up for the money she lost.
“I believe it was my second to last season on Vanderpump Rules. There was a Witches of WeHo wine party. [Katie Maloney], [Stassi Schroeder], and I were not getting along. So to be very transparent, at that time, I’d been demoted that season from an episodic paid cast member to a day rate,” she explained. “So that episode, I was in, but like, barely, and so I didn’t get paid. But Tom Sandoval happened to be there and he was in it for like a blink of an eye, like a half a second, which didn’t even cross my mind.”
According to Kristen, she received a PayPal gift from Sandoval after the episode aired.
“Tom and I weren’t even, we’ve never been super tight friends since our breakup, but we were like buddies, and [Ariana Madix] and I were friends. I randomly, without him telling me, I get this PayPal for a few thousand dollars from Tom Sandoval. I’m like ‘What the f*ck?’ This has to be a mistake,” she shared.
But it wasn’t a mistake.
“[He] says, ‘No, I meant to send that to you. I’m gonna send it again,’ which I didn’t accept it … But he sent it to me because he said 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,” she explained.
Due to Sandoval’s past gesture, Kristen said she was impacted by Scheana’s confession about the financial help she received from her castmate.
“[It] really hit me emotionally because Scheana and I are a lot of like in a lot of ways, being people pleasers, being very loving, being very sensitive, very emotional, carrying a lot of weight on our shoulders. And so it just brought me back to that moment, and I really felt for Scheana in that moment because that was a genuine move that Tom made in the same [way] he did with me,” she noted. “I don’t think anyone really knows that he did that.”
“So he’s not all bad?” her boyfriend and co-host, Luke Broderick, asked in response.
“I don’t know about now,” Kristen replies, “[but] essentially, the scene, Scheana’s like, ‘At the end of the day, I’m Team Ariana till I die.’ This is the first time we see Scheana cry. I was like, choking back tears. I cannot watch Scheana cry. I can’t. It breaks my f*cking heart.
While Kristen seemed to have compassion for Sandoval on her podcast episode, she reacted to the idea in an Instagram Story, including the clip and telling her fans and followers, “Please listen to the entire episode if you’re going to weigh in on this ONE clip.”
She also wrote, “I do not feel badly for him,” along with a link to the full episode.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.