Taking it in stride? Tom Sandoval admitted that getting booed on stage during BravoCon was “a little rough” in the aftermath of his Scandoval cheating scandal with costar Rachel Leviss.
Tom, 40, joked to Entertainment Tonight that he was feeling “so warm and fuzzy inside” after a rough first day at BravoCon in Las Vegas on Friday, November 3.
“You know, when you feel like people hate your existence,” the TomTom owner said. “When some guy gets on stage and goes, ‘So Tom, why would you even come here? Literally, nobody wants you here, nobody likes you,’ — that was a little rough.”
Tom Schwartz interjected and assured his friend, “They boo you because they love you.”
Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules, which premieres in January 2024, will document the group of SURvers navigating what comes next after it was revealed that Tom was cheating on his longtime girlfriend, Ariana Madix, with their mutual friend, Rachel, 29. The news of their affair broke off-screen in March, and it resulted in Tom and Ariana, 38, breaking up after nearly nine years together. Since then, Tom and Rachel have also ended their romantic relationship.
Since then, Tom said he is staying sober as he picks up the pieces. “I’m trying to go through all these times in my life without drinking. [I] stopped smoking cigarettes. I’m not smoking weed, either,” he told ET. “Just sort of taking things in with a clear head. Things like this make you appreciate the small things, you know, [like] walking into a room and someone smiling at you and saying hi. Taking the time to appreciate the little subtleties of life that sometimes you take for granted. They’re really important — more important than you think.”
As for what viewers can expect during the upcoming season, Schwartz, 41, warned that it’s “raw,” “heartfelt,” and “one of the most passionate seasons,” adding, “The stakes were very high. That sounds cliché but the stakes were very high.”
The cast goes on a “transformative trip” during season 11, according to Schwartz, which helps make the dynamic a bit “lighter.”
“We’re like a band. We make up, we break up, we get back together, we bang each other sometimes,” Schwartz said. “I kind of feel like — in my idealistic [mind] — it wasn’t perfect, but in the end, I kind of feel like we got the band back together.”