When Vanderpump Rulesdebuted in 2013, it took the reality TV world by storm with Lisa Vanderpump’s drop-dead gorgeous servers and bartenders at SUR as they navigated through life. The show is renowned for its scandalous drama within the friend group, bouts of verbal tiffs, and of course, the raging interpersonal infidelity. Over the years, cast members have been known to be unfaithful in their relationships and backstab their friends in times of weakness. However, regardless of the circumstances, the cast members could always bounce back and eventually mend their relationships.
Cut to when Tom Sandoval was caught cheating on his long-term partner of almost a decade, Ariana Madix, with one of her best friends at the time, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss; the cast and viewers were irretrievably divided, and it was a personal attack that struck at the emotional core of the entire friend group. The affair, now famously coined as a portmanteau of scandal and Sandoval known simply as “Scandoval,” led to a chain of shocking events, cutthroat reunion wars, and a concrete divide within the Vanderpump Rules cast. Scandoval shook the foundation of Vanderpump Rules on such a deep and emotional level that the cast could've never gotten past it, even if there was no overhaul.
News of Scandoval First Broke Outside the Show
The news of Scandoval broke outside the show when Vanderpump Rules Season 10 was being aired at the time. On March 3, 2024, TMZ reported that Madix and Sandoval had broken up after she discovered his affair with Leviss. Madix saw explicit videos of Leviss on Sandoval’s phone when it was handed to her while he was performing with his band. After news of the scandal broke out, producers scrambled to film an explosive finale way after the season had wrapped, adding an extra episode thataired on May 17, 2023, which was aptly titled “#Scandoval” and featured Madix confronting her boyfriend of nine years about his affair.
The scandal also led to fans viewing the ongoing season from a different lens and picking up on the interactions between Sandoval and Leviss leading up to the affair. Although the show was no stranger to infidelity, this was one of the first times that fans too witnessed an affair so despicable and unacceptable that they dragged Sandoval all over social media for weeks. It remained the talk of the reality TV news town for weeks!
What Made “Scandoval” Different Than Other Reality TV Scandals?
A person's closest friend and her boyfriend of nine years had cheated — something like this leaves an emotional scar that runs too deep. It's the kind that nothing can mend, let alone the storyline of a reality TV show. What made this incident different was Ariana’s refusal to engage with Sandoval in any capacity during VR Season 11 and rightly so. Although LalaKent and Scheana Shay were critical of her behavior and felt that she was being unreasonable in setting her boundaries, their reaction came from a place of lack of thoughtfulness or even perhaps because they were foreseeing the irreversible damage and wanted it to resolve somehow.
Those who have sadly been through anything remotely similar know what fell upon Ariana as seen in several episodes where she broke down. Eventually, if and once the person is finally able to see through the dark, which she was strong enough to, she managed to set boundaries and make room for healing. But as her choice was questioned, that's where the cast pulled the plug on any remaining chances of getting around it. After Scandoval,Madix didn’t want to interact with her ex and enlisted a middleman when she had to during Vanderpump Rules Season 11. This was unpacked during the Vanderpump Rules Season 11 reunion, an explosive affair of accusations and victim blaming, making it quite evident that the relationships between the cast could not be salvaged after Scandoval, even after one whole season.
Before this, Vanderpump Rules' tenth season featured a three-part reunion, which kicked off with Andy Cohen breaking the usual format to haveone-on-one interviews with Leviss, Sandoval, and Madix to get everyone’s side of the story back then. Madix wore a revenge dress and threw a plethora of cutthroat verbal insults at her ex-boyfriend and former best friend. The subsequent reunion episodes saw the cast members seething at Leviss and Sandoval as they belittled them for their affair. Save for Tom Schwartz, from Kent to JamesKennedy — all the cast members were livid about Scandoval and while another season perhaps was required to add context to it all, it wasn't possible to push it any further.
A Cast Overhaul Was the Last Resort To Salvage ‘Vanderpump Rules’
Image via Nicole Weingart/Bravo
Apart from the cast being at each other’s necks, Scandoval resulted in lawsuits galore. Leviss filed a restraining order against Shay for allegedly “attacking” her after news of the scandal broke out. The restraining order also led to producers having to follow protocols for the two women to sit in separate sessions with the cast during the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion. Levis then sued Sandoval and Madix for eavesdropping, revenge porn, and invasion of privacy. Sandoval responded to this lawsuit by filing a cross-complaint against Madix for invasion of privacy. Ten months after their breakup, she sued Sandoval over the home they bought together in 2019 and requested a “partition of real property by sale.”
Scandoval resulted in lawsuits, snide comments at podcast interviews, and rehab visits. This, coupled with Shay and Kent’s backstabbing behavior toward Madix for not wanting to film with her ex, made the situation a mumbo-jumbo that could no longer be brushed under the carpet. The arguments between the cast in Season 11 meant a permanent breakdown of trust and respect,andbeyond the insults and accusations, there was an underlying grief for relationships lost that left no path back to the connection that once defined the group.
While some will say that the cast overhaul is a rating strategy for the network — the bottom line is that the original group could never overcome Scandoval. The severity of the betrayal, the enduring emotional wounds, and the absolute failure of trust left producers with no choice but to bring in fresh faces. A mere apology tour or forced group trip wouldn’t restore their bonds since many took sides, too. Moreover, the public fallout would've also been absurd, considering how Scandoval was the talk of the news for weeks. The Bermuda Triangle of the aftermath of Scandoval sucked everyone in and the best call for Bravo to keep Vanderpump Rules running, therefore, is with a fresh start and new faces.
Vanderpump Rules Season 12 will return in 2025 with an all-new cast. In the meantime, you can stream the show’s previous seasons on Peacock.
Best known as one of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Lisa Vanderpump opens the salacious kitchen doors of her exclusive Hollywood restaurant and lounge, SUR.
Release Date
January 7, 2013
Cast
Scheana Shay
, Lisa Vanderpump
, Katie Maloney
, Tom Sandoval
, Tom Schwartz
, Ariana Madix
, James Kennedy
, Lala Kent
Image via Bravo
Image via Nicole Weingart/Bravo
English (US) ·