Katie Maloney on How Ariana Madix Feels About Schwartz

Katie Maloney claims Ariana Madix is understandably “grossed out” by Tom Schwartz‘s decision to keep Tom Sandoval‘s affair with Raquel Leviss a secret.

During a podcast appearance on Tuesday, the Vanderpump Rules star shared how Ariana feels about Schwartz today as she slammed Sandoval for his victim act, labeled Raquel as “awful,” and reacted to Sandoval’s “dumpster fire” interview with Howie Mandel.

“I just had a hard time because just like, the Ariana slander of it all,” Katie said of the interview on the May 16 episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat, shared by Rate My Bravo on Instagram. “Like immediately starting off with a lie.”

According to Katie, Sandoval lied about why Ariana was absent from a wedding he and Howie had both attended.

“Howie’s like, ‘Yeah, I saw you at the wedding. I didn’t see Ariana there. You’ve just been flying solo in life. Poor you.’ And Sandoval’s like, ‘Yeah, she didn’t want to come,’” Katie recalled.

But Ariana didn’t just not want to come.

“She had the COVID. She couldn’t come to the wedding,” Katie revealed. “‘Why are you acting like she just like, opted out? She was sick. She couldn’t go. Like, why are you lying already?’ It’s just like, ‘No, no, no. You ain’t gonna do this.’”

During another segment of the podcast, Katie said that the most disturbing thing about Sandoval and Raquel’s affair was the “interpersonal relationships involved with it.”

“Because it’s like the deception and the nefarious nature of the relationship with Raquel and Ariana,” she explained, via Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “The way that she would just allow Ariana to love on her and be best friends with her and hold her hand across the table and allow Ariana to open up about her relationship with Sandoval to her.”

Katie said Sandoval and Raquel were “sick and awful [to] just be carrying on behind [Ariana’s] back” before taking aim at narcissistic Sandoval for his victim antics.

“Sandoval just being just so selfish and narcissistic about it. All he wants to do is write himself as the victim in this story that, you know, he wasn’t getting enough love and attention in his relationship, but not putting in any work or effort,” she noted.

Although Sandoval has suggested he was in a loveless relationship, Katie said Ariana was doing her best to work through any issues they had.

“She’s having the conversation, she’s doing the work, and he’s acting like he wasn’t getting anything out of it,” she said. “That like he’s just been alone in this relationship. So he’s had to seek out. It’s just he went to the person just right next to her.”

As for where Ariana stands with Schwartz, Katie said on the podcast that they are not on good terms with one another.

“Of course she’s upset. She’s grossed out with him,” Katie shared, as noted by Us Weekly. “I think with the way [Schwartz] is saying he found out about the affair in January. ​Then in that case you needed [to tell her] … If he is saying he just found out … they have been covering for each other over the years in their gross ways.”

Part one of the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion airs on Wednesday, May 24, at 9/8c on Bravo.