Tom Sandoval is in trouble again. Nearly a year after Scandoval's affair broke, the " Vanderpump Rules" star linked his cheating scandal to the death of George Floyd and the death of George Floyd in a Feb. 20 interview with The New York Times Magazine The O.J. Simpson murder trial was compared. After facing backlash, he has now apologized for the comments.
In the cover story, Sandoval was asked why he thought Scandoval would go viral and spread. "I'm really not a pop culture historian," he said, "but I've witnessed the O.J. Simpson incident and the George Floyd incident and all these major incidents, and I think it's really weird to compare this to that, but Do you think it’s odd that there’s a slight resemblance?”
In March 2023, it was revealed that Sandoval had been unfaithful to his longtime girlfriend, Ariana Madix, with "Pump Rules" costar Rachel "Raquel" Levis ( Rachel “Raquel” Leviss had a months-long romance. Season 10 of the Brave series chronicles the events leading up to and following the reveal.
Writer and interviewer Irina Alexander tried to weave his remarks into the story. "He was trying to convey the strangeness of being at the symbolic center of national discussion and major news stories," she wrote. "Instead, he was delivering something more honest, and it was the experience that took away his perspective."
However, after the interview was published, an outcry quickly erupted online. Alexander said she even received a call from Bravo expressing concern about his comments. This all led to Sandoval sharing an apology on his Instagram Story.
“The purpose of my comments in The New York Times Magazine was to explain the extent of the national media attention my incident received,” he wrote. "This comparison is inappropriate and ignorant. I am deeply sorry and embarrassed."
Many viewers expressed their dismay, including his co-star Katie Maloney, who left several confused comments on the Instagram post. "Fuck?" she wrote. In another comment, she called out her ex-husband and Sandoval's business partner, Tom Schwartz, asking: "Would you like to explain what he was really trying to say?"
