Scheana Shay has her bestie’s back.
On Tuesday’s episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast, the Vanderpump Rules star shared details of just how protective she is over Ariana Madix in the wake of Tom Sandoval’s affair — and that it’s pretty clear whose “team” she’s on, whether she wants it that way or not.
She explained that last month during BravoCon, she had a one-on-one conversation with the 41-year-old during a party in his hotel room. There, she basically told him to keep Ariana’s name out of his mouth. She recalled:
“I said, ‘I don’t care if you’re saying she did this. You deserved what happened to you. I don’t like that you’re continuing to bring things up. You keep picking a scab. I need you to let her heal. Stop talking about her.’”
Say it louder for the people in the back!! No, but seriously, Tom was just being flat out rude… and he doesn’t seem to want to make things any easier for the 38-year-old, even after turning her world upside down.
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Scheana remembered telling him during the conversation:
“‘Talk about your band, talk about Special Forces, talk about anything else in your life, but let her be.’ And I literally put him in his place.”
As she should! Ariana is her best friend, so we’re glad to see she sticks up for her even when she’s not there. However, while the lines are pretty clearly drawn for Scheana outwardly, it sounds like she struggles a bit more with them internally, especially when it comes to the reality show they’re all a part of. She said:
“It is an ensemble cast. It’s not just Tom and Ariana. But I feel like this season that we just filmed it was trying to figure that out. For me, personally trying to see, you know, do I just stay team Ariana and say f**k Tom forever? Do I try and work towards a path of forgiveness for me personally? Do I try to be his friend again? Is that being disloyal to her?”
That’s a tough call…
She recalled through teary eyes:
“It was this whole inner struggle all season long where I’m like, I have things that I need to work through so I can sleep at night. So I can be a present mother. It was so hard and I don’t know that Ariana will ever understand how hard this was on me. Yes, it didn’t happen to me — I wasn’t cheated on. But there was a lot that he did do personally to me, and I’m someone who always tries to work toward a path of forgiveness because that’s just who I am. So it has been such a struggle to try and stay loyal while working on putting myself first.”
We can’t necessarily blame her for wanting to make her work environment a little bit easier on herself… She has a right to peace, too!
She added that besides Ariana, she is the cast member whose been most affected by Sandoval’s affair — but says she isn’t “allowed to feel anything” because she didn’t want to take away from what Ariana is going through, even though she was going through things of her own — like battling Rachel Leviss in court:
“I feel like this is the first season where I’m like, I have to do what’s best for me first and hopefully everyone understands. I mean, I lost weight after this scandal, I was in court after this scandal, I was fighting rumors online about my own husband after this scandal. It really did a number on me that I don’t think a lot of people realize.”
What a rough situation for Scheana! Watch a clip from the podcast ep (below):
Thoughts?? Let us know down in the comments!