Credit: Brandi Benton/startraksphoto.com
Tom Sandoval nearly didn’t return for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules.
After facing a whirlwind of backlash for his months-long affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 29, Sandoval, 41, questioned his future with Bravo. And, in a new interview, he opened up about how he got through the “longest year of [his] life” while also teasing the “intense” new season and looking back at the boos he received from fans at BravoCon.
“There was a time when I was like, ‘I can’t do this,’ because it was like every day, one insane thing after another. It was a lot,” Sandoval admitted during a January 31 appearance on Access Daily.
After host Mario Lopez, 50, suggested the cast was too hard on Sandoval at the season 10 reunion, signaling to their own past mistakes, Sandoval seemed to agree.
“I’m not arguing with you on that one. Sometimes people have memory loss,” he noted. “But everybody also [has] feelings, and they are entitled to their feelings.”
When Sandoval was caught cheating on his girlfriend of nearly 10 years, Ariana Madix, 38, he went through one “hell of a journey,” describing 2023 as “the longest year of my life.”
“It was really intense, and this season on the show, you’re really gonna see that journey back because obviously we’re all around each other, co-existing, and it was the most divided our cast and friends had ever been,” he teased.
While Sandoval was initially hesitant to rejoin the cast, he ultimately decided to “show up” and “take it.”
“Even at the reunion, I was there. I took it for like, hours, and then I went to BravoCon. I had like, 5,000 people there, people booing me. I showed up for this season. I showed up when our band toured. I had to look at people in their eyeballs that are wearing ‘Worm with a Mustache’ T-shirts. And I quit drinking for like eight months so I’m doing that super and it was really intense,” he explained.
Now that nearly a year has passed, Sandoval says that when it comes to leaving “Scandoval” behind, “We’re getting there.”
“That’s why I’m really excited about the premiere because the sooner the show airs, the sooner we get through it. Because the show picks up pretty much where we left off, and it was very intense,” he shared.
As for his new movie, Lifetime’s Tall, Dark, and Dangerous, Sandoval described it as a “Valentine’s Day thriller.”
“It’s part of their Vicious Valentine’s Day rollout that they do,” he said of the network. “It’s different themes every month. It was nice too, because it was like, back in like, April, when I really was looking for things like this to just put myself into, something that was outside of the scandal — same thing with doing Special Forces — that was really great for me, [it] just couldn’t have been a more perfect time for that.”
When Sandoval was then asked if he would do more acting, he confirmed the career was why he moved to California in the first place.
“That was always the goal, and then Vanderpump Rules happened, and obviously, that got put on hold or sort of just forgotten about for a while, but it’s nice to be back and doing it … [and] not having to deal with such high stakes,” he explained.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
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