Despite any past drama, Kristen Doute is standing with Ariana Madix amid her split from their mutual ex-boyfriend, Tom Sandoval.
Us Weekly confirmed on Friday, March 3, that Sandoval, 39, and Madix, 37, split after she found out he had an affair with Raquel Leviss.
“I don’t know why I feel like I need to make this clear, but there’s so many people right now wondering if this is making me happy,” the Vanderpump Rules alum, 40, said via Instagram Stories on Friday. “And you guys, Ariana and I’ve been really good friends for many, many years now. So, I am team Ariana — all day, every day. That’s what’s up.”
Alongside the video, Doute added: “Karma is indeed coming. So Raquel should just move home.”
Madix and Sandoval started dating in between seasons 2 and 3 of Vanderpump Rules following his split from Doute, who admitted to having an affair with their then-costar Jax Taylor. The He’s Making You Crazy author subsequently insisted that the TomTom co-owner was unfaithful with Madix, but the couple denied getting together before he and Doute ended things.
“When we broke up, he started dating someone else immediately — or, you know, maybe they were already secretly dating; they don’t ever have to cop to it, but I can theorize about it in my own book!! And now I love them both,” Doute wrote in her 2020 book. “I made a choice to let everything go, because whether or not I thought those rumors about an illicit rendezvous or two behind my back had been true or not, it didn’t matter anymore. A girl can’t actually steal someone’s boyfriend. He made a free-willed choice to leave me, and a free-willed choice to be with her. I needed to let them be happy. … They needed to find their own path to forgive me.”
While fans continued to watch Madix and Sandoval’s romance play out on Vanderpump Rules, Doute was let go after season 8. Us confirmed on Friday that cameras are still rolling on season 10 as Madix learned about Sandoval cheating with Leviss.
“They were having problems for a while,” an insider told Us, adding that things “only came to a breaking point” on Thursday, March 2.
Doute is among the many former SURvers to speak out amid Friday’s scandal. Leviss’ ex-fiancé, James Kennedy, for his part agreed with a social media user calling the twosome the “most vile subhumans I’ve ever met.” Madix’s brother, Jeremy Madix, slammed the whole show.
“This lifestyle and this group is beyond toxic and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone,” he wrote via Instagram. “Toms a try hard having a midlife crisis with his cringy band and Raquel has faked her way to the top trying to make something of her life willing to step on whoever to get there starting with James. Sell out type lame s—t. Let’s all remember that Raquel was a fan of the show before all of this. Does anyone pay attention?”
