Tom Sandoval (2014 – 2023)
Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval started dating 2014 after Tom’s breakup with his ex-girlfriend, Kristen Doute, who starred with them on Vanderpump Rules. In Season 2 of Vanderpump Rules, Kristen accused Tom of cheating on her with Ariana while they were still together. Later in the season, Tom confirmed the infidelity and confessed to kissing Ariana at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, Nevada, while he was still dating Kristen.
Less than a year after the Vanderpump Rules Season 2 finale, Tom and Ariana confirmed they were dating with a post on Instagram. “Leave it to me to post this one,” Ariana wrote in the caption. The two published their first book together, a cocktail recipes book titled Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers, in December 2019.
Ariana and Tom bought their first house together, a farmhouse-style home in Los Angeles’ Valley Village, in 2019. “Every room is different because Tom and I both have different individual styles and then we’ve really worked hard to put those two very different ideas together,” Ariana told People in 2021 “In some rooms, it’s definitely like the both of us and then in other rooms, it’s more me or more him.” Tom added, “We both have our own tastes and style, but we also have strong personalities.”
In an interview with Watch What Happens Live in 2021, Ariana revealed why she and Tom hadn’t married yet.”I think the big thing for me is that I’m not really into the whole fanfare of it,” she said. “It’s really more about the two people. So if it was just about us, you know, I honestly think I would be more open to it. I just don’t want it to be like a big thing about having a giant wedding and a bachelorette party and all that bulls—t.”
In Vanderpump Rules Season 9, Ariana revealed that she froze her eggs in case she and Tom wanted to have children in the future. “Surprise! I froze my eggs,” she said in a confessional interview. “Me and Scheana [Shay] were actually going together to freeze our eggs. And then she got pregnant.”
She continued, “It’s about having agency over my own body and my own future. It’s also kind of a nice fun ‘f— you’ to anybody who questions my values or my choices.”
Tom and Ariana broke up after nine years together in February 2023 after news that Tom cheated on Ariana with their Vanderpump Rules co-star, Raquel Leviss. “They had been having problems for a while, but this was the final straw for Ariana,” a source told People at the time. “She put up with a lot over the years, but she won’t sit back and be disrespected this way.”
A second source told People, “This has been going on for upwards of seven months — all the while, Tom was sleeping next to Ariana in bed. She was completely blindsided by this; devastated doesn’t even scratch the surface of how she feels.”
Ariana confirmed the cheating rumors in an Instagram post on March 15, 2023. “hi. where to begin? i want to express my most sincere gratitude for the outpouring of love and support i have received from friends, family, and people i’ve never even met in the last two weeks.” she captioned a photo of her on Instagram. “when i have felt like i couldn’t even stand, you all have given me the strength to continue and seen me through my darkest hours.”
She continued, “to say i have been devastated and broken is an understatement. however, i know that i am not in this alone. so many of my closest friends are also grieving this loss right now and reeling from this betrayal on so many levels. i am so f—ing lucky to have the best support system in the world and i hope i can repay every single person for the love you have shown me.” She endedher post, “what doesn’t kill me better run.”
Ariana confronted Tom over his affair with Raquel in the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 finale, in which she called their relationship “bulls—t.” Ariana continued to slam Tom and Raquel in an interview with Watch What Happens Live after the episode, calling the season “the fabrication of a narrative that was being formed the entire time without my knowledge, behind my back, by not just my ex-boyfriend but his little flying monkeys, as well.”
She also denied Tom’s claim that he tried to break up with her before news broke of his affair with Raquel. “From the moment I found out, he was screaming at me. We were in the backyard and he threw a beer can … he was more concerned about people hearing at TomTom than how I felt at all,” she said. “I think there’s some part of him that’s really loving the attention that this has brought him and as long as people continue to give him that attention, he will be happy about it.”
During the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 finale, Ariana revealed that she learned of Tom and Raquel’s affair after his phone fell out of his pockets while he was performing at a concert with his band, Tom Sandoval & the Most Extras. In Tom’s phone, Ariana found an explicit video between him and Raquel, who was in New York City for an interview on Watch What Happens Live with Scheana Shay. During her own interview with Watch What Happens Live after the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 finale, Ariana called the moment she phoned Raquel to confront her about the affair “odd.” “It was like she didn’t want to tell me anything. I had to beg, I was screaming, crying, throwing up, begging for some sort of something,” she said. “I said, ‘If you’ve ever given a crap about me, if you’ve ever cared, just as a woman, tell me something.’ All I could get out of her was there was a kiss and of course she framed it as: ‘It was after [the] girls’ trip.’”
When asked if she thought Tom and Raquel were in love, Ariana told host Andy Cohen, “I don’t know if they even know what that means.”