Scheana Shay is getting candid about navigating the uncomfortable dynamics between her Vanderpump Rules castmates in the wake of Tom Sandoval’s cheating scandal.
In the newest episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast, Shay, 38, revealed that she was forced to put Sandoval, 41, “in his place” at BravoCon last month because she was fed up with him continuing to talk about his ex Ariana Madix publicly.
She explained to host Alex Baskin that she pulled Sandoval aside during a party in his hotel room after the first day of the fan convention and took him to task over some unkind things he said about Madix — who is Shay’s best friend — on the red carpet earlier that day.
“I said, ‘I don’t care if you’re saying she did this. You deserved what happened to you. I don’t like that you’re continuing to bring things up. You keep picking a scab. I need you to let her heal. Stop talking about her,’” she recounted of their conversation.
“‘Talk about your band, talk about Special Forces, talk about anything else in your life, but let her be.’ And I literally put him in his place,” she continued.
Elsewhere in their conversation, Shay spoke about the “inner struggle” she faced as she and her castmates came back together to film for the upcoming new season of Vanderpump Rules.
“It is an ensemble cast. It’s not just Tom and Ariana,” she said, referring to the spotlight that’s been on the two exes since news of the scandal broke in March. “But I feel like this season that we just filmed it was trying to figure that out. For me, personally trying to see, you know, do I just stay team Ariana and say f — — Tom forever? Do I try and work towards a path of forgiveness for me personally? Do I try to be his friend again? Is that being disloyal to her?”
She continued, “It was this whole inner struggle all season long where I’m like, I have things that I need to work through so I can sleep at night. So I can be a present mother.”
Shay proceed to get emotional, fighting back tears, as she opened up about the toll that the cheating scandal has had on her personally.
“It was so hard and I don’t know that Ariana will ever understand how hard this was on me. Yes, it didn’t happen to me — I wasn’t cheated on. But there was a lot that he did do personally to me,” she said of Sandoval. “I’m someone who always tries to work toward a path of forgiveness because that’s just who I am. So it has been such a struggle to try and stay loyal while working on putting myself first.”
Shay noted that apart from Madix, 38, she is the person who has been most affected by the scandal among the VPR group. “But I’m not allowed to feel anything because it’s not about me, it’s all about her,” she explained of Madix. “I feel like this is the first season where I’m like, I have to do what’s best for me first and hopefully everyone understands.”
“I mean, I lost weight after this scandal, I was in court after this scandal, I was fighting rumors online about my own husband after this scandal,” she added. “It really did a number on me that I don’t think a lot of people realize.”
Shay previously spoke about her complex feelings toward Sandoval on a September episode of her Scheananigans podcast. “I never thought he was a bad guy,” she said at the time. “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.”
“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,’ “ she continued.
Vanderpump Rules can be streamed on Peacock.
.jpg "Quranic Quotes")
