Tom Sandoval Blames His Cheating On Being ‘Too Emotional’ and Reddit Is Ready to Commit a Hate Crime
Look, I get it. We’ve all been there. You’re in a long-term relationship, you’ve built a career on being a mediocre bartender with a guitar and a spray tan addiction, and suddenly you’re feeling *feelings*. Maybe you’re stressed about your cover band’s upcoming gig at a Dave & Buster’s. Maybe your crystal collection isn’t aligning your chakras the way it used to. So, naturally, you decide to screw your girlfriend’s best friend for seven months, lie about it to everyone’s face, record a diss track about it, and then hit the press tour to explain that you’re actually the victim here.
Enter Tom Sandoval. The man, the myth, the human embodiment of a red flag with a guyliner smudge. If you’ve been living under a rock or have a functional relationship with your therapist, here’s the recap: Sandoval, the VPR villain who made Scandoval a household name (and a verb for “destroying your life for a three-month fling you thought was a love story”), sat down for a new interview where he dropped the nuclear take that his affair with Rachel Leviss was, and I quote, a result of being “too emotional.”
Oh, cool. So we’re doing this now. We’re blaming the affair on *feeling too much*. Sir, you are not a tortured poet in a 19th-century Parisian garret. You are a 41-year-old man who wears necklaces made of human teeth (probably) and cried on national television because your girlfriend didn’t like your shitty cover of “Good 4 U.” Let’s break down this dogshit take before I throw my phone into the Hudson River.
In the interview, Sandoval claims he was in a “dark place” and that his emotions “took over.” He says he never intended to hurt anyone, which is rich considering he planned secret trips, bought burner phones, and lied through his veneers for the better part of a year. But no, it wasn’t about sex or ego or the thrill of sneaking around behind Ariana Madix’s back while she was grieving her dog and her grandmother. It was *emotions*. The guy has the emotional intelligence of a wet sock, but sure, let’s call it a “passion crime.”
This is the same logic as a guy who stabs you and says, “Sorry, I was just really hungry.” It’s not just a bad excuse; it’s an insult to the concept of accountability. You don’t get to weaponize feelings to excuse being a piece of shit. Everybody has feelings. I have feelings right now. I feel like Sandoval should be forced to live in a basement apartment with no natural light and only a bluetooth speaker that exclusively plays his own music. But I’m not acting on those feelings because I’m not an asshole.
The real kicker? Sandoval is now trying to rebrand as a misunderstood empath. He’s doing the classic abuser shuffle: “I was hurt, so I hurt others.” He’s trying to reframe his affair as some kind of emotional awakening. Dude, you weren’t having a spiritual breakthrough; you were having a midlife crisis in a pair of $400 Rick Owens boots. You weren’t exploring your feelings; you were exploring Rachel’s apartment layout.
And let’s talk about the timing. This interview dropped right as the new season of *Vanderpump Rules* is about to air, which is the reality TV equivalent of a serial killer releasing a memoir right before their parole hearing. It’s calculated. It’s cynical. It’s Sandoval trying to control the narrative because he knows he looks like a clown. But here’s the thing: Reddit, Twitter, and every group chat named “Spilling the Tea” have already rendered their verdict. We watched you cry on camera. We saw the texts. We saw Ariana’s face when she found out. You can’t gaslight an entire fandom, Tom. We are too online, and we have receipts.
The internet, as usual, has already digested this and spit it back out. The comments on the r/VanderpumpRules subreddit are a beautiful symphony of pure rage. One user wrote, “Tom Sandoval saying he’s ‘too emotional’ is like saying a dumpster fire is ‘too toasty.’” Another said, “This man has the emotional depth of a puddle on a hot sidewalk, but sure, blame it on your big feelings.” My personal favorite: “He’s not too emotional; he’s too stupid to know that lying is wrong.”
What Sandoval doesn’t get is that this isn’t just about cheating. It’s about the *audacity*. It’s about the fact that he built a brand on being the “nice guy” bartender who painted his nails and wore crop tops, and then he turned out to be the same insecure, narcissistic dude we’ve seen a million times. He’s not a villain we love to hate; he’s a villain we’re just tired of. It’s exhausting to watch someone fumble the bag so hard that they become a cautionary tale about what happens when you let a mediocre white man with a podcast and a ponytail think he’s the main character.
But wait, it gets worse. In the same interview, Sandoval also hints that he felt “suffocated” in his relationship with Ariana. Oh, so now we’re retroactively shitting on his ex? Because that always works out well. “She was too good for me, so I cheated.” No, Tom. You cheated because you wanted to have your cake and eat it too, and then you wanted to film yourself eating the cake on a Bravo confessional. It’s not complicated. You have the impulse control of a golden retriever in a room full of tennis balls.
At this point, I’m not even mad. I’
Final Thoughts
Tom Sandoval’s saga is a masterclass in how reality TV’s thirst for drama can consume the very people it creates, leaving a trail of bruised relationships and shattered public trust. For all his calculated charm and bandana-wearing bravado, he ultimately exposed the hollowness of a man who mistook attention for authenticity, a cautionary tale for anyone chasing fame in the influencer age. The real tragedy isn’t the betrayal itself, but watching someone so expertly curate a persona that even he forgot where the performance ended—and the consequences began.