Does anyone believe Tom Sandoval’s explanation about what happened with that shocking lawsuit against Ariana Madix??
For those who missed the latest Scandoval drama, here’s the rundown. Last week, he filed a lawsuit against Ariana for getting “access” to the sexually explicit video of Rachel Leviss without “authorization or permission.” Sandoval then claimed the Love Island USA host made “copies” of the footage and “distributed” them to Rachel and others. He essentially sued her for finding an NSFW video that exposed his months-long affair — something she never expected to see on her boyfriend’s phone at the time! Yeesh…
Related: Ariana Madix Sued AGAIN — This Time Over Her Sandwich Shop!
Sandy quickly faced intense backlash from Vanderpump Rules fans and co-stars because, you know, what a horrible move on his part! He’s really going to sue the woman HE cheated on for accidentally finding out?! Not to mention he looked like such a hypocrite after he slammed Rachel for suing Ariana for basically the same thing in her “revenge porn” suit!
Eventually, Sandoval addressed the legal move. He claimed on Instagram that he was misled by his since-fired attorney, Matthew Geragos, as the phrases “new lawsuit” and “suing” were never “articulated” to him before the bombshell filing. The TomTom co-owner insisted he never intended to sue Ariana and thus planned to drop it:
“I should’ve done more of my due diligence on the matter. Upon realizing what this action actually means, I have removed Matt Geragos from my legal team. In no way am I suing Ariana. The action against Ariana brought on my behalf is being removed. I hold no ill will or vindictiveness toward Ariana. Now, by removing both the Cross-Complaint and the attorney who recommended it, I hope to get through this case quickly, so that Ariana and I can both finally MOVE ON with our lives.”
He never meant to sue Ariana? Yeah, we call BS on that! And so does Ariana’s best friend, Katie Maloney!
As the Bravolebrity pointed out on Wednesday’s episode of her Disrespectfully podcast, Sandoval (and his new girlfriend Victoria Lee Robinson) deactivated his Instagram account BEFORE the lawsuit was revealed to the public. It seems to her like he was “preparing for blowback.” She questions why he would’ve preemptively shut it down if he didn’t understand what he was doing — and thought it was totally reasonable and fine.
At the same time, she does think there’s a chance he was “ill-advised” by his lawyer and “probably didn’t understand the full weight of what it was going to be.” However, Katie still has her doubts and thinks he wasn’t as naive about the whole situation as he made it seem! The Something About Her co-owner went on to explain:
“[Tom] probably should’ve not done it to begin with and been like, ‘Yeah, well if you’re telling me I need to deactivate my account, like maybe we just don’t do this in general. Like, that would’ve been a good indication [that this is] probably gonna be pretty damaging [and] the language of whatever is gonna be put out there isn’t gonna be a good look.”
Her co-host and former VPR co-star Dayna Kathan agreed, saying it was “telling” for Sandoval to deactivate his page before the “disgusting and shameful” suit went public. She added:
“So, I think [he] did know the gravity of what was going to happen.”
Dayna ultimately believes he changed his mind about the suit once he saw all the backlash online:
“He said he had bad legal advice. I don’t believe that for a second. I think he saw the backlash. You wanna move on? Then why the f**k are you suing her, you psycho?”
Damn! Go off! The podcast hosts concluded the lawsuit talk by calling Sandoval a “loser.” Watch the episode (below):
Do you agree with Katie and Dayna, Perezcious readers? Or do you actually believe Tom’s statement? Sound OFF in the comments below!
[Image via Bravo/Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen/YouTube]
