The ‘Vanderpump Rules’ star thinks producers were disappointed she didn’t break down in the finale, so “we’re gonna retaliate by doing that right now, in a place where she’s contractually obligated to be here.”
Ariana Madix is speaking out following the third and final part of the explosive Vanderpump Rules Season 11 reunion.
Madix was a guest on the Disrespectfully podcast, cohosted by castmate Katie Maloney and Dayna Kathan, where she got candid about that fourth wall moment in the show’s season finale.
While the cast was given screeners of the remaining episodes of VPR ahead of them filming the reunion, producers withheld the final minutes of the Season 11 finale — which saw Madix walk away from cameras after she felt cornered into having a conversation with her ex-boyfriend, Tom Sandoval — and screened it during the reunion to get the cast’s live reactions, something both Madix and Maloney thought was retaliatory.
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“It felt very pointed towards me. It felt like, ‘Well, we have her trapped in this room now. So we didn’t get what we wanted to get [in the finale],” Madix said. “We didn’t get to break her down IRL [in real life] in the moment. So we’re gonna retaliate by doing that right now, in a place where she’s contractually obligated to be here, and try to force this moment now.”
She continued, “And that’s like, great. I cried. [Are] you guys happy now?”
Maloney, meanwhile said it “felt mean,” adding, “It didn’t affect me. It didn’t affect anyone else in the way that it was gonna affect her.”
The new Love Island USA host said that it hurt even more after giving what she thought was “the best f—ing ending to what that season could have had in that moment by leaving.”
Bravo
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“It was real, and it was exciting to watch,” Madix added. “Sorry, if you literally are only looking at it from a perspective of like good reality TV, I gave you good reality TV.”
Madix went on to say that she believed the show’s producers were trying to force a conversation between her Sandoval — something she wasn’t ready to do — with the Something About Her sandwich shop co-owner noting that a scene that saw her just “standing there” listening to Sandoval “would have been a boring cap to a boring a– season, to be honest.”
Maloney also “hated the ending of it all,” including the cast being shown the last few minutes of the season at the reunion.
“I hated that they waited to show us that five minutes because I was like, this feels mean, and it’s just mean towards Ariana.” she reiterated.
Bravo
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It also reopened some wounds amongst the cast a year on from Sandoval’s headline making affair, straining relations further between Madix and Lala Kent — who felt Madix wasn’t pulling her weight on the show by being more “honest” and not having those uncomfortable conversations — as well was with the TomTom co-owner, who claimed that Madix talked negatively about her castmates behind the scenes.
Vanderpump Rules has been put on pause following the finale, with no word on when cameras will pick up again. And as of now, it’s unknown if Madix will return for a potential Season 12, or if Sandoval will for that matter.
All 11 seasons of Vanderpump Rules are currently streaming on Peacock.
