Scheana Shay is reflecting on her complex feelings towards Tom Sandoval amid the fallout of #Scandoval.
On the latest episode of her Scheananigans podcast, the Vanderpump Rules star, 38, opened up about how her friendship with Sandoval, 40, has changed in light of him cheating on his girlfriend of nine years, Ariana Madix — who is also Shay’s best friend — with costar Raquel Leviss.
“I never thought he was a bad guy,” she shared. “He was one of my best friends for almost 15 years. He was the only person who had my back on this show, who fought for me whenever something was unfair and he was the person there in my corner.”
She continued, “I have personally really struggled with all this because I’m like, ‘Yes, you did a really bad thing. But you weren’t a bad friend to me. But then what you have done has affected me, so it’s just changed the entire dynamic of our group.”
Shay’s comments came after she revealed on an Amazon Live in July that she and Sandoval had been paired together for a “spiritual meditation healing” during a VPR cast trip to Lake Tahoe.
“Wednesday filming was beyond the most emotionally draining day I have ever had in 11 seasons of Vanderpump Rules,” Shay said. “My eyelashes hurt from how much I cried that day, my contacts were dry, I was congested, I felt weak in every way possible.”
She recalled how their conversation during the retreat was “not easy” because of their longtime friendship and what had happened last season, and seemingly went on to address previous criticism after Sandoval was featured on her Instagram during the trip.
“I don’t like what he did to Ariana obviously,” she said. “Him and I have had a really long friendship so everyone always [says], ‘Oh Scheana, the flip-flopper, Scheana needs to have loyalty,’ and losing a friendship of that long has obviously been a struggle.”
“But Team Ariana,” she added. “She’s my girl.”
The “Good as Gold” singer previously addressed a fan who suggested that she had forgiven Sandoval after he appeared in her Instagram Story, saying, “Who said all is forgiven?? We are all here for Lisa [Vanderpump].”
After she also received criticism for smiling in a cast photo with an arm wrapped around Sandoval, she took to Instagram to set the record straight again.
“I don’t know why I feel the need to defend taking a photo with my hand like this,” Shay said in a video in bed with costar Lala Kent, who was also part of the Lake Tahoe trip.
“People are so stupid. It still blows my mind that people still don’t realize we’re filming a show. And it was that girl’s birthday!” Kent responded. “What are we gonna say? Like, no?”
“We’re in a group, we’re all here,” Shay explained. “We hopped in a photo, you know what, I happened to be standing where I was standing. We take photos with strangers every f — -ing day.”
A premiere date for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules has not been announced, but seasons 1–10 can be streamed in full on Peacock.
