Celebrity
Tom Sandoval Tried To Compare His Cheating Scandal To O.J. Simpson & George Floyd
The Vanderpump Rules star later apologized for his comments.
Tom Sandoval has landed himself in hot water — again. Almost a year after Scandoval unraveled, the Vanderpump Rules star compared his cheating scandal to George Floyd’s death and the O.J. Simpson murder trial in a Feb. 20 interview with The New York Times Magazine. After receiving a huge backlash, he’s now apologizing for the comments.
In the cover story, Sandoval was asked why he thought Scandoval became as viral and widespread as it did. “I’m not a pop-culture historian really,” he said, “But I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?”
In March 2023, it was revealed that Sandoval had cheated on longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix by having a months-long affair with their Pump Rules co-star Rachel “Raquel” Leviss. The events proceeding and following the revelation were captured during Season 10 of the Bravo series.
Writer and interviewer Irina Aleksander attempted to contextualize his remarks in the story. “He was trying to express the oddity of becoming the symbolic center of a nationwide discussion and a major news story,” she wrote. “What he communicated instead was something more honest, which is just how much the experience had made him lose perspective.”
However, the internet outcry was swift after the interview was published. Aleksander said she even received calls from Bravo with concerns about his remarks. It all led to Sandoval sharing an apology on his Instagram Story.
“My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain the level of national media attention my affair received,” he wrote. “The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed.”
Many viewers expressed dismay, including his co-star Katie Maloney, who left several confused comments on an Instagram post. “The f*ck?” she wrote. In a separate comment, she called out her ex-husband and Sandoval’s business partner, Tom Schwartz, asking, “You wanna come explain what he was really trying to say?”
