Ariana Madix on Planning to Quit ‘Pump Rules,’ Scandoval, & BF

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Credit: Kim Nunneley/Peacock

Ariana Madix had no plans to return to Vanderpump Rules — even if the series hadn’t been rebooted after season 11.

During a recent cover shoot, the 39-year-old explained why she was planning to quit the show before it was recast, shared her thoughts on “Scandoval,” and gushed over boyfriend Daniel Wai while also discussing her $1.6 million Hollywood Hills home, her return to Love Island, cosmetic procedures, and more.

“I don’t think I was ever going to go back to Vanderpump Rules. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that publicly, but I was never going to,” Ariana admitted to PEOPLE’s StyleWatch on March 13. “It just didn’t feel right. Not in any sort of rude way, not in a professional, ‘We don’t need this,’ not in a, ‘I’m too good for this’, but it just didn’t feel right. If I did go back, I wouldn’t have been able to do the job that would make a good show. And so it just wasn’t going to make sense, the story didn’t make sense.”

According to Ariana, she wasn’t “made” for reality television.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been what makes ‘a good reality star.’ I think in some ways that’s what has made me a good reality star. But that being said, I think that a lot of times I got in my head,” she explained, noting that she worried at times that she was too “boring” or “ugly.”

“That type of dialogue, I was having it in my head constantly filming nearly every scene, unless maybe I had a glass of wine, [and] that’s just not a good way to be,” Ariana noted. 

Ariana also felt that she couldn’t be herself on Pump Rules. But now that she’s not on the show and about to turn 40, she declared she’s her “true self.”

“I’m surrounded by such amazing friends and family. It feels really good to be in a position where I’m able to do what I love and make a living doing it. Being in this business for many, many years, it’s taken a long time to get to that point, and I feel really lucky,” she shared.

As for how she feels when she looks back on “Scandoval,” which saw her getting cheated on by Tom Sandoval, 42, for months with their mutual friend and castmate Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 30, Ariana confessed, “I don’t.”

“I hate that name too. That word has never come out of my mouth,” she stated.

Shortly after her split from Sandoval, Ariana began dating Daniel, who she described as the “most beautiful person” with the “most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.”

“He’s taught me that the things that I perceive as imperfections or flaws are non-existent to him,” she gushed. “There’s things that I’ll say like, ‘I hate this about myself, I hate that about myself,’ and without him ever hearing me say that, or him even knowing, he’ll be like, ‘Man, I love this about you.’”

“He’s taught me not to focus on those things because someone who loves you doesn’t even see that. And if they do see it, they think it’s amazing about you,” she added.

Although Ariana and Daniel are nearly two years into their romance, they have yet to move in together and have instead been maintaining a bi-coastal relationship, with him in an apartment in New York City and her in her Hollywood Hills home, which she purchased last March.

“My first night in that house wasn’t until a while after I had gotten it. I was in New York when I got the house,” she recalled. “It’s interesting, trying to fill a house takes so long. It’s been nice, it’s been good.”

As Ariana enjoys time in Los Angeles, she knows it will be short-lived, as she’ll soon be heading back to Fiji to host the upcoming seventh season of Love Island.

While Ariana has faced plastic surgery rumors in the past, she admitted only to “very minimal laser” and injectables, including chin filler, during her interview with PEOPLE’s StyleWatch.

“I’ve started doing Botox more in the last few years,” Ariana shared. “I did it a long, long time ago, and I really hated it. I think it was just the wrong placement, the wrong everything. I don’t have any right now, but I’ll probably go back and get some.”

Moving on to the sandwich shop she shares with Katie Maloney, 38, Something About Her, Ariana revealed they’re looking into a potential new location as she teased “lots of things in the works.”

“It’s been really fun. It’s really nice to have a place to go, it’s lovely when we get to meet people who come in,” she explained. 

As for what’s next, Ariana said she’d love to return to Broadway.

“I just love being on stage. I love performing, I would love to be doing more of that,” she stated. “It’s really fun and it’s really fulfilling for me, and I love being able to do that.”

“If I can just be happy and healthy, I think I’ll be in a good place,” she added.