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Ariana Madix reacted to Scheana Shay‘s surprising confessionals and “backup dancer” shade on Tuesday night’s Watch What Happens Live.
While also offering updates on the status of her $2 million shared home with Tom Sandoval, 41, and her new $1.6 million home in the Hollywood Hills, Ariana, 38, reacted to Scheana’s diss, spoke of Lala Kent, 33, profiting off “Scandoval,” and teased the “heavy” reunion.
“What I have seen, yes, there was the backup dancer comment that I found [interesting]. I was like, ‘Huh,’” Ariana admitted on the April 30 episode of WWHL after being asked if she was surprised by things Scheana said about her in confessionals.
Then, after agreeing with fellow guest Katie Maloney, 37, that Lala was the cast member who profited most off of “Scandoval,” aside from Ariana, the ladies officially announced the opening date for their new sandwich shop.
“Everyone’s been asking, they want sandwich shop updates, so we finally have the update. We have a date,” Katie teased, as Ariana confirmed, “We have a date.”
“May 22!” they both proclaimed.
Moving on to the reunion, which was filmed in March, Ariana denied eviscerating Lala as an online rumor had stated. In fact, she said she “did not eviscerate anyone.” That said, the reunion was a monumental event for everyone.
“It felt like a real heavy day,” Ariana admitted.
In the weeks since the taping, Lala has been making headlines for speaking out against Ariana and recently unfollowed both her and Katie on Instagram.
“I don’t know,” Ariana replied when asked why Lala unfollowed her.
“Apparently she needed to even out her followers. She said she has 2-point-something million so she needed to match,” Katie explained, before adding, “Dude, I don’t know.”
While Ariana revealed that her and Sandoval’s shared home “is still under legal dispute” as she attempts to convince the court to require it to be sold, Ariana has purchased a new home — but says it’s still “empty.”
In addition to fighting Sandoval for the proceeds of their home, Ariana is also fighting his former mistress, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 29, who sued her and Sandoval earlier this year in a revenge porn lawsuit.
When Andy asked if she and Sandoval responded to Raquel’s lawsuit together, Ariana confirmed her response to the case was “not together” with that of her ex’s.
Getting back to her sandwich shop and its many delays, Ariana said that she had sympathized with Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, 40, when they faced hardships opening Schwartz & Sandy’s.
“I always did and I was always super supportive of that process,” she stated.
She was then asked if Sandoval’s ex-assistant, Ann Maddox, was still working at Something About Her.
“We actually just got a message from her the other day,” she confirmed. “She’s had another temporary job between filming.”
Although Ariana has seen clips of the show online, she confirmed to Andy that she has not watched season 11 in its entirety.
“No. I live Vanderpump Rules,” she explained, noting that her role in Broadway’s Chicago has been her focus in recent months. “My dream job, there was no way I could mess that up because I was worried about what was airing. I had to be so in it that I was like, ‘You know what? Once this is over I can catch up.’”
On the WWHL: After Show, after being asked if there was anything she wanted to get off her chest about the currently airing episodes, Ariana admitted to feeling a bit misled by certain cast members.
“Maybe I just wasn’t reading into situations as much as I should have but from moment to moment, what I was filming and what I was living, I really thought that we were the freaking Spice Girls,” she shared. “And then I was watching it, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe not so much.’ I thought we were … doing something else.”
According to Ariana, she believes that the dynamics among the group would have been different if they hadn’t started filming season 11 so soon after “Scandoval” broke.
“I think there would have been a lot more stuff from everyone,” she noted. “It was so soon after. I’m still in my functional freeze state just trying to get through it.”
Because Ariana was so devastated by the reveal of Sandoval’s affair with Raquel, she nearly didn’t return to Pump Rules for season 11.
“I was hesitant, to be honest, but then I felt that I wasn’t in a position financially really to walk away and I also felt I should keep living my life,” she explained. “I also felt like the good, bad, the ugly, that’s kind of what we’ve been doing for how many seasons? I felt like maybe I owed it to people to just let them in on that phase of my life even though it was really bad.”
“So you’re watching me very slowly try to pick myself up,” she added.
Ariana then spoke of her hosting gig on Love Island USA season six.
“I’m now the host of my favorite show. I will watch 50 GD episodes of Love Island with anyone any day,” she proclaimed.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
