Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval has always been up to no good, but it wasn’t until he cheated on Ariana Madix that his reputation really took a hit. Since the “Scandoval” was so major, it’s easy to forget that he was no angel before he started his secret affair with his wife’s former confidante, Raquel Leviss. More often than not, Tom’s moral compass is malfunctioning. Sometimes, it seems non-existent. He makes decisions that are all about him, and the people around him pay the price.

When Tom goes for a hipster mustache, he really leans into the villain role, looking like an old-time silent film “baddie” who’s about to tie an innocent woman to the railroad tracks. It could be argued that the Vanderpump Rules celeb’s a woman’s worst nightmare. Yes, he acts like he’s God’s gift to women, but despite good looks and an admittedly impressive work ethic, Tom (described as, “the poor man’s Johnny Depp” by Below Deck‘s Captain Lee Rosbach, is bad to the bone. He’s like a jungle cat waiting to pounce on his prey.

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8 Tom Sandoval’s Bar TomTom Is Controversial

Lisa Vanderpump’s Getting Sued By Employees For Wrongful Termination

Right now, Lisa Vanderpump’s in the hot seat because a disgruntled former TomTom employee accused her of wrongfully firing him. Since Tom owns a part of TomTom, along with Lisa, her husband Ken Todd, and the “other” Tom (Tom Schwartz), he’s a part of the scandal too. Are the bar’s higher-ups ignoring the needs of their workers? According to the complaint, they might be.

Apparently, this former TomTom employee wasn’t happy with how things were going at the Los Angeles watering hole. He complained about some issues, including unsafe working conditions. For example, he claimed there was sewage backup at the location… After he made these disturbing allegations, he got canned. A while back, TomTom merged with Pump in a downsizing move that seemed to scream “financial trouble.”

The bar business is tough. Even if a bar becomes successful, it’s hard to maintain its profitability. However, staff members deserve safe working conditions. The outcome of this lawsuit is still uncertain, but it raises questions about Tom Sandoval’s role in things. Whose responsibility is it to make sure employees are well cared for at the bar? If it’s his as well as Lisa’s, then he may need to make some major changes. Lisa and Ken own the biggest share in the bar, but it’s his enterprise too.

Vanderpump Rules has always explored the imbalances in power between owners and servers. At least at the outset, before its cast members got famous, there were servers struggling to make it in Hollywood and owners who already had it made. This lawsuit shows that there might still be a major division between management and the workers who are there on the front lines, serving customers and trying to get tips.

7 Tom Sandoval Cheated On Ariana Madix

Tom Sandoval Crushed Her Hopes & Dreams

Tom’s a bad partner. He gets serious with women and then betrays them. After he does, he tries to blame his misdeeds on them. When he was caught cheating on Ariana with Raquel, he deflected, claiming that problems with Ariana were the reason why he just had to cheat. Of course, things between them might not have been as bad as he claimed. He might have just stepped out of his relationship for the thrill of it.

He tried to make it seem like Raquel was his soul mate, but they split up long ago. Sure, even a good relationship would probably implode just due to the stress of being judged by the whole world, but they obviously aren’t soul mates. Just to excuse his actions, he tried to make the connection seem deep and meaningful. Meanwhile, his longtime partner Ariana was horrified, grossed out and feeling like a deer in the headlights.

Tom seems nice enough when he’s with a partner, but look a little deeper and there are real problems. He’s playing the part of a committed boyfriend, but that isn’t who he really is. When the women find out what he’s really like, it’s Armageddon. Ariana just got cast as Roxie Hart in the play Chicago (she’ll also appear in Dancing With The Stars season 32), so she’s moving on beautifully. Of course, she must be very hurt. He’s done damage to her psyche that may take years to heal. While she’ll recover fully eventually, Ariana probably hates looking back as she was so duped by a guy who turned out to be a dirtbag.

6 He Was Unfaithful To Kirsten Doute Too

Once A Cheater, Always A Cheater

Before Tom cheated on Ariana, he honed his player skills while he was in a relationship with Kristen Doute. Yes, Kristen isn’t the easiest woman to get along with. She’s erratic, and onscreen, Kristen once described her and Tom as:

That was a troubling moment that may have been a glimpse of Vanderpump Rules‘ seamy underbelly. Remember James Kennedy, Lala Kent and the “pasta”? That was a code word for… something. These incidents tell a story about the show’s stars and how some of them may have fallen prey to the temptations of Los Angeles.

Another temptation is infidelity. Tom definitely surrendered to that one. He clearly thought he would get away with it. If he’d anticipated the kind of shade he was going to get after the truth came out, he might have avoided the affair in the first place. Instead, he meandered down a very dangerous path, oblivious to the doom that lay ahead. People give in to passion all the time – it’s one of the ways that they find meaning in life. Sometimes, it gets messy.

In Tom’s case, the fallout was extreme. Tom’s act of infidelity was like a nuclear bomb that went off, changing his and Ariana’s lives forever, but they survived. That doesn’t mean that they weren’t emotionally harmed by the experience.

5 Tom Sandoval Is Strongly Narcissistic

Tom Sandoval Has An Ego

Tom’s got an ego. Does he ever! When he tried to put his cheating on Ariana by implying that their relationship issues were the reason why he cheated, it was so cruel. Not only did she have to deal with the pain that comes from a long-term relationship ending so badly, but she had to listen to her ex tell the world that their problems provoked him to cheat.

When he did that, Tom added insult to injury. He didn’t handle the situation well and Ariana will probably never forgive him for what he did, not to mention everything that happened afterward. Some things are just too bad to forgive, but even so, detachment can free a person from the pain. Hopefully, she will get into a detached state that helps her to put the past behind her.

Tom’s exceptionally vain. Lots of people are – however, the fact that he puts so much effort into his appearance may show that image is everything to him. Pulled-together outfits, ultra-styled hair, skin that glows thanks to his meticulous self-care routines…these are Tom’s stock-in0trade. He’s more than clothes and hairstyles though. This guy works really, really hard. When he does stuff like cheating and then blaming it on the person he was unfaithful to, he tarnishes his legacy.

Without these misdeeds, he’d be quite an impressive person. He turned his passion for bartending into an extremely successful career. Thanks to weaknesses that are way out of control, Tom is perceived as a terrible person who inflicts extreme emotional damage on the unsuspecting. He may never shed the monster label.

4 Tom Sandoval Is An Opportunist

Tom Sandoval Leveraged His Breakup To Score A New Reality TV Gig

Tom wanted to “punish himself” after cheating on Ariana, as per the Fox clip shown above (viaTube). He knew that everyone hated him. That’s his story, anyway. Tom’s really hamming it up in the trailer above, which teases his Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season. However, another scenario is that he’s actually using the cheating scandal to boost his career. By taking a high-profile reality gig that allows him to say how “sorry” he is for sleeping with Raquel, he gets money, more fame, and the chance to push his narrative.

What if he’s not really sorry? Maybe he even loves the attention. Yes, it’s possible that he’s ashamed and traumatized by the bad publicity. However, there’s always a part of Tom that’s hustling hard. This man’s seriously ambitious. He wants the American Dream. While his sex drive has led him to the rocks, there’s always the possibility of redemption. On World’s Toughest Test, he tried to come across as a contrite man who wanted to suffer. He wanted to do penance in front of millions of people.

At the same time, he was serving up entertainment. After seasons as a main Vanderpump Rules cast member, he knows what the public wants. He’s able to deliver. His career is everything to him and since he took on more work (World’s Toughest Test) when he was “grieving” the loss of his relationship, and then dialed up the drama onscreen, there’s a chance that he’s an opportunist. Don’t expect Tom to disappear into the shadows – that’s just not his style.

However, the more he capitalizes on this sad chapter of his life, the more he’s going to get backlash. He gets monstrous when he profits from talking about Ariana’s pain (and his own, if he’s really feeling it). Now would be a good time to be quiet and let things blow over.

3 Tom Sandoval Was Accused Of Breach Of Contract Over Cocktails Recipe Book

Ariana Madix Was Too

Tom and Ariana co-authored a book that highlighted their mixologist skills. It’s called, Fancy Af Cocktails: Drink Recipes From A Couple Of Professional Drinkers. It was a great concept that seemed tailor-made for a fan base with plenty of party energy. While the book’s title was appealing, according to someone they allegedly worked with on the book, it wasn’t all theirs. Alison Baker claimed in her lawsuit filing that she was promised “45 percent” of the advance and royalties but didn’t get paid, as per E! News.

Ariana and Tom said it was all lies – however, this kind of shade raises questions about their character. Those who believe the allegations will think of the Vanderpump Rules stars as con artists rather than upwardly mobile bartenders. Only the courts can decide which interpretation is the correct one.

2 Tom Sandoval Feels Sorry For Himself

Tom Sandoval Is A “Pity Party” Type Of Guy

Tom’s “tragedy tour” on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test was a public relations masterclass. See him in action in the Fox clip shown above (as per YouTube). In the video, he’s berated for playing the victim when he was the one who cheated. Of course, his own emotions are valid. He’s been ripped apart in the court of public opinion – not just by Ariana and other castmates. He said the process of dealing with the aftermath of his infidelity was, “exhausting,” and that part of his rant was definitely sincere.

The thing is, it’s so much worse for Ariana. Sure, she isn’t hated by everyone, but she has to live with all the deception, a lot of which was filmed for posterity. She and Tom were the “stable” Vanderpump Rules couple. Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney were the train wreck. Now, both couples have derailed. Ariana probably planned to spend her life with Tom. Now, she has to live with the fact that he spent years of her life with someone who was capable of doing this to her. That’s actually much worse than the horrors he’s dealing with, which are also real.

1 Tom Sandoval Was Accused Of Cheating With “Miami GIrl”

Ariana Madix Actually Defended Him

Ariana ignored some red flags along the way, and she should probably have paid more attention to those. There was the “Miami Girl” scandal, whereby Tom was accused of cheating yet again. During season 3, it was said that he traveled to Miami and enjoyed more than a little time at the beach. The love interest in question was reportedly Annemarie Maldonado, better known as “Miami Girl.” She was encouraged to fly to Los Angeles to confront Tom. Sounds sketchy, right?

Kristen was the one who asked the woman to come to Tom’s workplace and raise hell. That must have been awful for him. No one wants to deal with that kind of personal messiness when they’re just trying to get through the workday. Miami Girl did come to SUR, and Tom dealt with the situation as any seasoned womanizer would, calling the woman a “f*cking psycho.“

Thanks to these sins and many more, the Vanderpump Rules king has lost his crown. However, he’s still famous and earning money. For him, that may be what matters the most.

Sources: Fox/YouTube, Fox/YouTube

Vanderpump Rules

Vanderpump Rules is a reality-drama series created for Bravo that stars Lisa Vanderpump, a former star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, as she expands her restaurant empire and staff. The cast consists of Lisa’s staff members across her various establishments in West Hollywood as they try to build their futures and establish relationships that range from friendly to romantic. All of which frequently turn messy as mixing with business pleasure, as they are warned, doesn’t always end well.