“Literally the week before all of this happened, I remember emailing my agent and manager and being like, ‘Guys, let’s start really trying to do some s–t, because I’m not in a good place financially,'” Madix recalled in a ‘VPR’ teaser.
Ariana Madix wasn’t in the best place financially when she and Tom Sandoval broke up.
In a clip from Tuesday’s all-new Vanderpump Rules, Madix set the record straight about her financial status after both her friends and the internet alike assumed she was making millions of dollars off the back of the Sandoval’s affair with Rachel Leviss.
“The internet thinks I’ve made millions of dollars. That is not true,” she explained of the deals and opportunities she acquired post-Scandoval. “It’s like, on March 1st, was I financially prepared to move? No. Literally the week before all of this happened, I remember emailing my agent and manager and being like, ‘Guys, let’s start really trying to do some s–t. Because I’m not in a good place financially.'”
Offering more details in a confessional, Madix said that when she first started making “decent” money from her long run on the show, she and Sandoval decided to buy their Valley Village home.
“Then I was playing catch up all the way up until Katie [Maloney] and I found a great location for a sandwich shop [Something About Her],” she explained. “Then a bunch of my money went toward that. Now I was at a point where in March I was literally on my last $2,000. I am not kidding.”
It’s been a little over a year since news broke that Sandoval had been cheating on longtime girlfriend Madix, with their friend and co-star, Leviss, creating a scandal that captivated the internet and much of the TV world.
The aftermath and her split from Sandoval is the reason, Madix, says, that she took on so many work opportunities.
“He created this situation and now I am f—ing scrambling to get my s–t together to be able to, in a financially responsible way, move on to the next step,” she noted in the clip.
After addressing the drama in the season 10 reunion special, Leviss checked herself into a mental health treatment facility for 90 days and has since left the show. Sandoval, meanwhile, stayed in the spotlight by touring with his band, Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras, and had a short stint on Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
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He even started his own podcast, titled Everybody Loves Tom before returning to Vanderpump Rules for season 11.
As for Madix, well, her opportunities have been pretty bountiful since the scandal, doing everything from BIC razor commercial and an appearance at Raising Cane’s to making it to the finals on Dancing With the Stars and starring as Roxy Hart on the latest Broadway production of Chicago.
She’s hopeful Something About Her will be a success as well — when it opens that is. After facing delays due to permits and funding, the West Hollywood sandwich shop has yet to open its doors, and while it’s been an integral part of her and Maloney’s storyline this season, the pair tells Us Weekly that the shop will not pay tribute to the long-running reality series.
“Nothing is related to the show or any cast members at all [at Something About Her],” Maloney told Us, with Madix, for her part, noting that Bravo viewers shouldn’t expect their shop to lean into their reality TV roots, saying, “We got to get some new material out there.”
See all the drama unfold on Vanderpump Rules, airing Tuesday nights on Bravo.