Ariana Madix didn’t appreciate the conversation Lisa Vanderpump had with her castmates on Tuesday’s episode of Vanderpump Rules.
After watching as Lisa, 63, sat down with Scheana Shay, 38, and Lala Kent, 33 to discuss her concerns about the mental state of Tom Sandoval, 41, following his controversial affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 29, Ariana, 38, noted that the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum shouldn’t have put so much pressure on Scheana and Lala and should’ve instead sought out a professional.
“It’s a heavy burden to put on people, and I don’t take that stuff lightly,” Ariana stated on the February 20 episode of the Pump Rules: After Show.
According to Ariana, she believes Sandoval is the one who doesn’t take mental health seriously — especially when it comes to discussing hers.
“He went on Howie Mandel’s podcast and was talking about how I was like [suicidal] as if it was fodder for a podcast. So I think it’s kind of alarming that it is an important thing depending on who we’re talking about,” Ariana noted.
“If someone has concerns, they should seek professional help for someone. That is the route that should be taken,” she continued. “If he’s not going to seek professional help for himself, if Lisa is concerned, instead of putting it on Scheana and Lala she should find professional help for him because I think, ultimately, Scheana and Lala are not equipped and should not be carrying that.”
Lala felt similarly to Ariana, although she acknowledged that Lisa, having lost her brother to suicide, may have been extra sensitive to Sandoval.
“I understood where Lisa was coming from, especially given that she lost her brother … [But] I didn’t want Lisa to place the mental state of someone on us,” she explained. “It felt like she was, ‘If this were to happen, you would blame yourselves,’ and then there was the other side where it was like, I don’t think that that would ever happen, but I refuse to participate in someone doing something like that so it was all those things in one.”
“It was a heavy conversation,” she added.
During her own Pump Rules: After Show segment, Scheana said that because she lost someone close to her years ago to suicide, Lisa’s comments to her about Sandoval “hit home.”
“I had spoken to this person a few days before and I didn’t realize the way that they were reaching out to me, just saying how depressed they were and my response was like, ‘Well maybe you should look at some of your choices.’ That’s something that for many years weighed heavy on me so when Lisa said this, I was like ‘I don’t ever want to feel that way again. I don’t ever want to feel like my words could be responsible for someone being pushed over the edge,’” Scheana shared.
Scheana harbored a lot of guilt due to her harsh handling of the situation with her friend and took a lot of weight with what Lisa said. However, she also wasn’t ready to welcome Sandoval back into her life after he betrayed Ariana.
“I didn’t really know what to do with that information because I’m not just gonna welcome him back and be like, ‘We’re best friends again.’ That’s not going to happen. Too much has happened,” she said. “But I felt like in that moment, I needed to stop projecting so much anger and hatred.”
In addition to not wanting to pile on when it came to Sandoval, Scheana also didn’t want to further damage her own mental state.
“[It] wasn’t healthy for me, and I was losing sleep at night. I was having nightmares for weeks in a row. I had lost weight. I just wasn’t the best, healthiest version of myself because this was weighing heavy on me,” she explained. “I didn’t want that to continue so I felt like maybe we do need to soften up in a way but that doesn’t mean welcome him back into the group because we’re not there.”
Tom Schwartz, 40, also discussed Lisa’s sit-down with the ladies, saying that while he didn’t know what was said, it served as a “pivotal moment” for the group.
“[Lisa] always couldn’t get a hold of [Sandoval] so she would ask me how I’m doing but also, through me, check in on [Sandoval]. I wasn’t there for when she sat the girls down at Villa Rosa and talked to them. I don’t know exactly what she said. But whatever it was, that was a pivotal moment in regard to the vitriol,” he noted.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
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