Credit: Michael Simon/startraksphoto, Instagram
Tom Schwartz is breaking his silence on the many claims his former flame, Jo Wenberg, has made against him in recent weeks.
After Jo, 35, slammed Schwartz, 40, for “gaslighting” her, leaked texts he allegedly sent her, and accused him of continuing to reach out despite his new romance with girlfriend Sophia Skoro, 23, Schwartz appeared on Brittany Cartwright‘s podcast, where he labeled Jo a “compulsive liar” and accused her of bizarre behavior with his family.
“I tried not to touch this. I’m taking the high road. I’m Mr. Rise Above. I don’t go looking for negative stuff online but people inevitably send you stuff, and I’m seeing Jo talking sh*t about me, like random clips, and I’ve tried not to respond, just ignore it. Like, saying I’m her soulmate, reading my texts on a livestream and I just feel like I have to address this because I’m starting to get negative comments on my social media,” Schwartz began on the May 24 episode of When Reality Hits With Jax and Brittany.
“Clearly, she’s acting out. Her feelings are hurt. I don’t want to invalidate her feelings but also, I have feelings and they’re valid too,” he continued. “I want to shed a light on my point of view and why I pulled away from her because I feel like she’s kind of using social media to create this sort of ‘Poor me, I got played,’ breadcrumbing narrative. She’s building a following at my expense and I’m getting tired of it.”
According to Schwartz, Jo has been blocked on social media and deleted from his contacts. But like it or not, people have sent him things about her.
“It’s frustrating to see her playing the role of a victim. Sometimes you really dig somebody and then you find some things out about them that causes you to look at them in a completely different way. Or sometimes you just really dig somebody and then the feelings go away,” he reasoned.
As for when things took a turn for him and Jo, Schwartz said that at the start of filming on Pump Rules season 11, he began to notice “erratic behavior” and “red flags.”
“It was a lot of things and I’m not gonna divulge most of those things but one of the biggest things is I found up that she makes up … In my experience, she’s a compulsive liar,” he revealed.
Then, after Brittany, 35, accused Jo of claiming she and Jax Taylor, 44, called her to break the news of the passing of Kristen Doute‘s dog, which didn’t happen, Schwartz said that while some of Joe’s alleged lies were “benign and non-sensical,” others were “malicious or manipulative.”
“And low-key, what she’s doing with these livestreams, like building a following at my expense, it’s slightly manipulating the audience,” he noted.
“The first lie that I substantiated and I found out, just casually one day, she mentioned she used to babysit for one of our executive producer’s kids,” he recalled. “I had no reason to question that but I asked him weeks later and he’s like, ‘No, I never met her before the show started.’ That was the first seed of doubt. I didn’t confront her. I was just like ‘Okay,’ and then as time went on … People started coming out of the woodwork and telling me things about her and I would shut them down, sometimes even go to bat for her and defend her. [And] as time went on, some other things happened.”
One of those other things involved Schwartz’s family.
“Some of the things I found out that she told my family behind my back, really f*cking pissed me off, my mom told me, my sister told me, my brother told me … My family got involved and they were like really f*cking dangerous accusations. She went behind my back and called my family and said some f*cked up things,” he shared.
Jo also had a strange encounter with his sister, who was once a proponent of their relationship.
“She spent two nights with Jo and she said it was one of the worst experiences of her life. She had to block her afterward and she’s like, ‘I’m traumatized.’ She apologized to me profusely for weeks for trying to push her on me,” Schwartz said. “That stuff, it just really rubbed me the wrong way. There’s too many lies … I have a list of minimum 20, 20 substantiated, confirmed lies.”
As for what was behind Jo’s reported mistruths, Schwartz suspected, “I don’t know if she has a great support system. She’s like, looking for validation on social media … She’s looking for short-time clout and imaginary online sympathy and I feel like she’s sacrificing any chance she has for legitimacy or credibility.”
In addition to feeling that the sharing of his texts was a “violation,” Schwartz denied contacting her recently.
“I’m just like, what the f*ck is she talking about? I’m not at all,” he insisted.
In closing, Schwartz offered a message for Jo:
“Jo … Show them your hobbies, the sh*t you do, your hair business, surfing, go be zany and wild, just don’t f*cking try to build a following at my expense,” he advised.
The Vanderpump Rules season 11 reunion concludes Tuesday at 8/7c on Bravo.
