Katie Maloney is making it very clear how she feels about Tom Sandoval after his lawsuit drama with Ariana Madix.
Maloney, 37, addressed Sandoval’s recent legal developments on the Wednesday, July 24, episode of the “Disrespectfully” podcast with cohost Dayna Kathan, saying, “I had the fire of a thousand suns in me. I wanted to punch someone — anyone.”
While rehashing the sequence of events, Maloney questioned Sandoval’s decision to “level the blame” amid Rachel “Raquel” Leviss‘ ongoing lawsuit against Madix, 39, and Sandoval, 42. Maloney specifically slammed Sandoval’s claims he wasn’t aware of what he was filing.
“Why are you gonna deactivate your Instagram account ahead of time? If you’re not preparing for blowback,” Maloney noted about Sandoval’s “insane” behavior. “It was surprising that he went this route with it.”
The Vanderpump Rules cast’s lawsuit back-and-forth started when Leviss, 29, sued Sandoval and Madix in March for revenge porn, eavesdropping and invasion of privacy. Sandoval and Madix individually petitioned the court to dismiss Leviss’ suit.
Us Weekly broke the news earlier this month that Sandoval subsequently sued Madix. In documents obtained by Us, Sandoval claimed that Madix “obtained access” to his phone on March 1, 2023, and reviewed videos of Sandoval and Leviss amid their affair without his “authorization or permission.” The filing alleged that Madix “made copies” of the NSFW video and distributed it to “Leviss and third parties” against his authority.
Madix has denied multiple times that she shared the video of Leviss with other people. Days after making headlines for his lawsuit, Sandoval walked back his decision and claimed he didn’t know he was suing Madix.
“Late Tuesday afternoon, my attorney, Matt Geragos, whose advice I trusted, called me about the Cross-Complaint in the lawsuit against myself and Ariana,” Sandoval wrote via Instagram. “He assured me that the action was customary and strictly preventative in these types of lawsuits and urged me to agree to it. The words ‘New Lawsuit’ or ‘Suing’ were not articulated to me. I should’ve done more of my due diligence on the matter.”
Sandoval said he has since “removed” Matt — who is the brother of Leviss’ attorney Mark Geragos — from his legal team.
“In no way am I suing Ariana. The action against Ariana brought on my behalf is being removed. I had no ill will or vindictiveness toward Ariana,” he continued. “Now, by removing both the Cross-Complaint and the attorney who recommended it, I hope to get through this case quickly, so that Ariana and I can both finally MOVE ON with our lives.”
On Wednesday’s podcast, Maloney weighed in on Sandoval’s claim he was “ill-advised,” saying, “[He] probably didn’t understand the full weight of what it was gonna be. But you were still being advised, and you probably should have not done it to begin with.”
Maloney pointed out that if Sandoval deactivated his Instagram before the news went wide then it is a “good indication” that his choices were “pretty damaging.”
“The language of whatever’s gonna be put out there isn’t gonna be a good look,” she continued before defending Madix. “I don’t like the attitude that just because [Ariana] has amazing things going on in her life, she’s got a wonderful boyfriend and she’s in Fiji that what happened wasn’t painful and awful and a terrible thing to experience. That can still [be] 100 percent true and exist in her mind and wounds in her. That is a very unfair attitude to have.”
Maloney continued: “Would it be more fair or unfair for these things — for [Rachel and Sandoval] to be suing and pulling this s–t out — if these opportunities weren’t happening [to Ariana after the affair]? Excuse me, the logic, it doesn’t logic.”
As Maloney and Kathan wrapped up their discussion, the Something About Her cofounder quietly added, “I hate that man so much.”
Maloney previously supported Madix by publicly addressing Sandoval’s brief lawsuit. “Authorized permission … interesting choice of words pal. Anyways, you f–king suck dude,” she wrote via Instagram comments. “He did share his phone pass code with his partner at the time. Mans [sic] confused about how that bit works I guess.”
