The Vanderpump Rules fanbase is still reeling a bit from the breakup news
regarding Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney. The two were together for 12 years in total, two of which were as a married couple and nine of which were spent as headliners on the reality series since its inception in 2013. Their co-stars showed support online, but Ariana Madix is getting candid about how she really found out about her friends’ divorce.
If appearances are any indication, the cast had no idea about the couple’s future marital demise when they filmed the Vanderpump Rules Season 9 reunion back in December. (Or at least, they weren’t showing it.) As Ariana Madix would tell it, she found out from Tom Schwartz about his divorce only after it was already decided on, and she was as completely shocked as the rest of us. Madix said to Entertainment Tonight:
He just kind of, like, said it from the hallway to me and I was, like, by myself in the room. My jaw was on the floor for I think, like, 10 minutes. And I was just like, 'OK, well, bye.'
That’s classic Ariana Madix, if I’ve ever heard it. (For a friend’s 12-year-long relationship ending, I would’ve needed more discussion at the on-set than that.) Madix’s boyfriend of eight years, Tom Sandoval, told the outlet that they are “cheering” on both Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney no matter what happens and can’t do much more than that. Ultimately, he said, “I mean, really, that’s what it is.”
Katie Maloney not only revealed that she and Tom Schwartz are still living together (for the time being), but that the reason for their divorce was because she wasn’t feeling fulfilled, along with lingering issues that she wasn’t ready to discuss yet. It would be interesting to find out if Maloney’s lingering issues in fact have to with her big argument with Tom Sandoval in Season 9 of Vanderpump Rules, during which she vocalized her husband’s feelings about the bar idea and then wasn’t supported by said spouse in the subsequent fight with Sandoval. According to their co-star, during the same ET interview, though, the dynamic of their group is still strong, saying:
Well, we obviously love both of them very much and they were hanging out the other day, and so, like, I feel like I’m really hopeful that the positivity continues. I’m excited for both of them in whatever they have next in store. I mean, Tom and Tom are about to open their new bar together.
Before Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz called it quits, co-star Lala Kent had broken up with her fiancé/the father of her child, Randall Emmett. Cheating was reportedly the case, and Kent isn’t afraid to shade him for it in public. It also came to light that Madix and Maloney's sandwich shop venture with Emmett was dissolved in the wake of the breakup. But before all of even that whole mess, James Kennedy and Raquel Leviss called off their engagement as well.
Perhaps Ariana Madix’s fervent philosophy to never get married is the right idea after all? Because Vanderpump Rules relationships are dropping like flies out here. But fans can relive the good old days of the Schwartz-Maloney rollercoaster with either Peacock Premium membership or a Hulu subscription.
