Tom Sandoval is clearly comfortable in front of a microphone.
On his first podcast appearance since his cheating scandal was revealed at the beginning of March, the Vanderpump Rules star fully opened up on his affair with co-star Raquel Leviss and the demise of his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix.
Tom, 40, appeared on the highly-anticipated episode of Howie Mandel’s podcast, Howie Mandel Does Stuff, which was released on Tuesday, April 11.
Although Howie was unaware of the details of Tom’s affair, Tom took the opportunity to fully give his side of the story that has rocked the world of reality television over the past month.
Specifically, in terms of his relationship with Ariana, Tom claimed he had already broken up with her on Valentine’s Day, two weeks before her finding out about his affair.
As previously reported by Monsters and Critics, Ariana found a screen-recorded video on Tom’s phone on March 1, which showed him and Raquel engaging in sexual activity via FaceTime.
Vanderpump Rules’ Tom Sandoval dishes on his failing relationship with Ariana Madix
“I had already broken up with her two weeks earlier, and I told her, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t have to post anything on social media, like, let’s talk through this,’” Tom said, explaining that he and Ariana were “on hold” for a joint job at the time that a public breakup would affect.
He explained that he wanted to keep the breakup between them to “figure out a way to navigate this that helps us both out and makes it easier.” However, he said Ariana was in denial about his decision to end things.
According to Tom, Ariana was “very upset” and even punched him at the moment, later cooling down and telling Tom that she would not let him leave her. “You’re gonna have to force me out of this relationship,” Tom said she exclaimed.
“She’s like, ‘If you break up with me, you will be effectively ending my life,'” Tom claimed Ariana told him. “I didn’t know what to do. She was in complete denial and not accepting it,” he continued.
At the time, Tom said that he hadn’t yet informed Ariana of his secret relationship with Raquel, yet also explained that if he and Ariana were together more, she would’ve noticed how often he was FaceTiming her.
Tom explains the moment Ariana found out about his affair with Raquel Leviss
Continuing with his timeline of events, Tom said that following their alleged breakup in February, Tom went on a trip to Miami, and Ariana didn’t reach out to him the entire time.
However, Ariana showed up to Tom’s band’s performance at TomTom shortly after on March 1, where she was overly interested in showing PDA with Tom.
“We’ve never been PDA unless it’s for a photo or for press or whatever, [but] she, like, in front of all these fans, she grabs me and knows that I’m not gonna push her away in front of people, and she kisses me,” he explained.
After Tom’s phone fell out of his pocket at the show, Ariana initially went through it to see if something had happened with another girl while he was in Miami. She then discovered the sexually-explicit video of him and Raquel, and Tom said that Ariana was the most upset he had ever seen her.
“But we were broken up, she knew we were broken up,” Tom said of their status at the time.
Fans can tune into the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion later this spring to hear more of Tom’s side of the story.
Vanderpump Rules airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.