What We Know About Tom Sandoval And Ariana Madix's Relationship

Fans of the Bravo series "Vanderpump Rules" were stunned when news broke that Tom Sandoval was cheating on Ariana Madix with their costar, Raquel Leviss. Up until the story was released in early March 2023, Sandoval and Madix had been together for nearly 10 years. A number of outlets revealed that not only were Sandoval and Leviss having an affair, but they had also been engaged in the affair for at least half a year.

While fans of the show waited for Sandoval, Madix, or Leviss to release a statement about the affair, they also began poring through old episodes of the show to see if there were hints and signs of the relationship between Sandoval and Leviss that they might have missed. Many fans quickly recalled that Sandoval and Leviss wore matching necklaces and that Sandoval had dressed as Leviss for Halloween in 2022.

The trio's cast mates also had their own reactions to the affair. As Leviss' former fiancé James Kennedy captioned a since-deleted post: "Hope you all feel as sick as I do. This explains everything" (via Twitter). With all this in mind, here is a look at Tom Sandoval and Ariana Maddix's relationship, all the way up to its surprising end. 

Tom Sandoval was in a relationship with fellow "Vanderpump Rules" costar Kristen Doute when rumors began to swirl that he and Ariana Madix had hooked up. Madix and Sandoval later admitted they had kissed one another before Sandoval and Doute ended their five-year relationship. Madix joined "Vanderpump Rules" when she got a job as a bartender at Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant in West Hollywood. She eventually transferred to SUR, which is where she and Sandoval hit it off. From the beginning of Madix's first season on the show, Sandoval made it clear that the two were friendly and that they had even worked together before. 

Years later Doute explained on Dear Media's "Scheananigans with Scheana Shay" podcast that she and Sandoval should have ended their relationship sooner than they did. "It was, like, easier to just — as it felt in the moment — easier to just stay in it than it was to, like, break up the friend group," she said (via ET). "But we were both unfaithful. We cheated on each other."

Tom Sandoval and Kristen Doute waited until the reunion episode for Season 2 of "Vanderpump Rules" to announce that their relationship was over — and Sandoval also used the same night to share that he and Ariana Madix were officially a couple. 

Of course, not everyone was exactly thrilled about the news when the pair announced it on the show. Sandoval was asked about the apparent evidence that he had cheated on Doute, and everyone acknowledged that things between the two had cooled off for a while. Sandoval admitted to cheating and Madix joined the group. Once everyone realized that the two were together, Doute told the audience that she was "heartbroken" despite being in her own new relationship at the time. Things eventually boiled over to the point where Doute leaves the set of the reunion episode completely.

After the big reveal on the reunion episode, Sandoval and Madix announced the news the way many celebrity couples do: on social media! Both took to Instagram to share photos that meant something to them, with Sandoval posting a picture of the pair on a trip to San Francisco and Madix posting a black and white photo of the two making faces in a photo booth.

Things between Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix weren't exactly smooth sailing in the beginning, and Sandoval was accused of cheating on Madix about a year into their relationship. The rumors were prompted by Sandoval's ex-girlfriend Kristen Doute, who was convinced that he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman named Annemarie Kunkel while on a trip to Miami with his friend Jax Taylor.

Madix eventually addressed the rumors in a lengthy post that she originally shared on her Tumblr account, though that post has since been locked. Reality Tea copied and pasted the post in its entirety, and it's clear that Madix was choosing to believe her boyfriend over anyone else — even after Krunkel shows up at the restaurant SUR where everyone works.

Madix goes to great lengths to defend Sandoval's behavior. She points out that her brother was on the trip with her boyfriend, and that the men on the trip were easy to find in Miami because they were hired to do a number of preannounced public appearances. She concludes: "Despite all of this, people will say whatever they want to say. They always have and they always will."

Despite appearing seriously committed for years, Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix repeatedly asserted that they had no plans to get married ... ever. While speaking to Us Weekly in December 2018, the two each reaffirmed this to the outlet. "It's not on the agenda for us," Madix said. When pressed about whether or not she wanted to get married and have kids ever in her lifetime, Madix insisted that there were simply too many other things she wanted to do first.

"I feel like I have way too much stuff I've got to do, you know? I've got to travel the world, I've got to be a successful businesswoman," Madix continued. However, a few years later it started to sound like Madix might have been considering changing her mind about marrying Sandoval. After witnessing the effort that Sandoval put into orchestrating James Kennedy's proposal to Raquel Leviss, Madix told her boyfriend on the October 19, 2021, episode of "Vanderpump Rules" that she could kind of see the appeal. 

As she put it: "How could anyone say 'no' if this is how someone asks you to marry them? So, like, if it was like this, but it was just us, maybe." Madix repeated the sentiment to Bravo's Andy Cohen about a week later, when she said she would be "more open" to a wedding if it was just herself and Sandoval.

Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval hit a minor bump in the road in January 2019 when Sandoval revealed parts of Madix's dating history to his friends — and it turned out she didn't exactly give him permission to do so. As Sandoval related to friends and castmates James Kennedy, Peter Madrigal, Tom Schwartz, and Jax Taylor in an episode of "Vanderpump Rules," things between Madix and fellow costar Lala Kent took a sexual turn once upon a time.

Sandoval tells the men that he had picked up Madix and Kent after the pair had been drinking when something unexpected happened. "They're in my car and Lala goes, 'Sorry, Sando, I'm just in love with your girl right now. Ariana, will you climb in the back seat?" (via YouTube). At that point, Kent reportedly performed oral sex on Madix, but that wasn't something that Madix wanted everyone else to know.

Madix eventually confessed in the episode that she didn't want to hide what happened between her and Kent, but that she was upset that her boyfriend felt like it was okay to share a story that wasn't his in the first place just to "sound good" with his friends. As she put it: "I do feel like Tom betrayed my trust by telling this story to his guy friends" (via Us Weekly).

The issue about Tom Sandoval telling Ariana Madix's business to his friends couldn't have been too big of a deal for the pair, because they turned around and bought a $2 million home together in February 2019. As reported by E! News, the pair worked with Sandoval's friend and real estate agent Douglas McFarland to find the right abode. As McFarland explained to the outlet: "We explored a lot of options in a lot of different areas (both fixers and new) and ultimately found that the quality and detail of this property was far superior than your typical turn and burn mc-mansion."

The home is certainly impressive. The entertainment outlet noted that at the time of purchase, it had five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, plus a private pool that came complete with a waterfall. In April 2021, the pair offered People the opportunity to check out their home in person, and the outlet reported that it's just as lush and lovely as it sounded back when the two bought it.

Madix told the outlet that when it came to styling and decorating the home, the pair had their work cut out for them — mostly because she and Sandoval have different styles and preferences. "Every room is different because Tom and I both have different individual styles and then we've really worked hard to put those two very different ideas together," Madix explained.

Despite previously insisting that she didn't think she would ever want to have children, Ariana Madix revealed to the surprise of many that she had taken steps to freeze her eggs ... just in case. Madix spilled the beans on her fertility decision in a November 2021 episode of "Vanderpump Rules" but explained that she froze her eggs primarily for herself.

In the confessional booth, Madix went into more detail about the decision. She told viewers that she and her costar Scheana Shay were going to freeze their eggs together before Shay and fiancé Brock Davies had a baby. "Me and Scheana were actually going together to freeze our eggs. And then she got pregnant," Madix revealed (via People). However, she was quick to add that she still didn't plan to really have a kid. "This does not mean that I'm jumping on the baby train," she added.

Madix spoke more about the process of freezing her eggs on Shay's podcast. She told listeners that it wasn't exactly easy on her body, and she had to wait a while before she felt like her typical self. "Even after my retrieval procedure, I had a lot of complications. It was a whole mess of trying to be able to do things, walk around, all of that," she said (via Apple Podcasts).

In early 2023 rumors began to spread that Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval's relationship was open — that is, that they were dating one another but also free to date other people, too. As reported by Page Six, the rumors began after the trailer for Season 10 of "Vanderpump Rules" showed castmate Scheana Shay telling Sandoval: "Katie [Maloney] said you and Ariana have an open relationship," and in another part of the trailer, Sandoval is shown hugging another castmate, Raquel Leviss, while he isn't wearing a shirt.

In a since-deleted tweet, Page Six added that Madix joked: "We don't have an open relationship. I'm really not that cool. Thought that was obvious. #pumprules." Madix then went on to reply to fans who had more questions about the pair's relationship. 

Madix spoke to Page Six directly about the rumors at the show's premiere event. She told the outlet that she often felt that the public was overthinking her relationship with Sandoval a little too much. "I think people see my relationship with Tom ... as nontraditional in a lot of ways, and they think there's got to be more to it, you know?" Madix went on to add that she believed that the pair shared so much of their relationship on camera that there really wasn't much they could be hiding.

Things between Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix ended in early March 2023 when the news landed that Sandoval had cheated with costar Raquel Leviss. But only hours before that news broke, Sandoval had waxed poetic about Madix to Page Six. Sandoval admitted to the outlet that the pair had experienced their "ups and downs" but that they've always been able to support one another. He added: "I think we've been really good about respecting each other."

However, upon reflection of the interview, it was pretty clear that Sandoval and Madix weren't exactly in the best place. When asked how he felt about marrying his girlfriend, Sandoval told the outlet that he was "kinda over" the idea of the pair making that move. 

News that her boyfriend was cheating with a person she considered a friend seemed to surprise Madix, especially as the two had been seen together in public quite a few times before the allegations were proven true. A source told Page Six of the pair that "Ariana and Tom have been affectionate in public recently. ... Ariana had no idea there were any issues."

On March 4, 2023, Ariana Madix found out that Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss were having an affair. As reported by People, Madix found out about the relationship after she found a sexually explicit video that Sandoval and Leviss had recorded together. According to the outlet, Madix was at a music venue watching Sandoval perform in his band Tom Sandoval & the Most Extras when she found the video on Sandoval's phone in addition to a number of texts that People described as "inappropriate."

A source close to the situation told the outlet: "This has been going on for upwards of 6 months — all the while, Tom was sleeping next to Ariana in bed. She was completely blindsided by this; devastated doesn't even scratch the surface of how she feels." The outlet also wrote that Madix was completely surprised by the news that the pair were having an affair. Four days after news of the affair broke, Sandoval issued an apology to Madix on Instagram. He said in part: "My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends."

In the immediate days following news of Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss' affair, Sandoval and ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix surprised many by continuing to live together. A representative for Sandoval told People that one reason they each stayed put is that figuring out what to do next isn't an easy decision. "They own the house together, and what happens next with the property will take time to sort out."

"Vanderpump Rules" friends and costars soon made it clear that they were supporting Madix after the affair came to light. As noted by Us Weekly, Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney, and even Sandoval's former girlfriend Kristen Doute were all seen visiting Madix at the pair's home. Doute also took to Instagram to offer her support for Madix and told her followers: "I stan Ariana. This is in real-time. I love you so much. I love you more than anything. You're my girl" (via Instagram).

Many were also surprised that Sandoval did not immediately apologize to Madix but instead took to the internet to ask viewers not to harass his friends or the staff at his restaurant. James Kennedy, Leviss' ex-boyfriend, wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post referring to Sandoval: "Make sure y'all unfollow this clown RIGHT NOW GO" (via Us Weekly).