Tom Sandoval can’t seem to avoid controversy these days. The Vanderpump Rules star, 40, caused a firestorm on social media after he compared his cheating scandal to O.J. Simpson‘s trial and George Floyd‘s murder, which led to him issuing a public apology on his Instagram Stories.
“My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain the level of national media attention my affair received,” Tom wrote on Tuesday, February 20. “The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed.”
Tom made the controversial comments in his interview with the New York Times published Feb. 20. The Bravo star was asked why “Scandoval” (his months-long affair with former co-star Raquel Leviss that was exposed in March 2023) became so infamous in pop culture.
“I’m not a pop-culture historian really, but I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?” Tom said.
Irina Aleksander, the reporter who wrote the piece on Tom, noted that she tried finding the logic in his response. “I think I knew what he meant,” she wrote. “He was trying to express the oddity of becoming the symbolic center of a nationwide discussion and a major news story; what he communicated instead was something more honest, which is just how much the experience had made him lose perspective.”
Irina also said that Bravo PR and Vanderpump Rules showrunner Alex Baskin reached out to her when they heard Tom said something questionable in the interview. “Everyone was concerned,” Irina wrote in the article. “What was it that he said about O.J. Simpson and George Floyd exactly? Maybe Sandoval wasn’t ready for this.”
Tom received a lot of hate on social media for comparing his affair to O.J. Simpson and George Floyd. Guerdy Abraira from The Real Housewives of Miami took him to task on Instagram. “The disrespect… and during Black History Month… WOW just plz,” Guerdy wrote in the comments of a Bravo fan account’s post. “PLEASE reflect on this repulsive statement you made (regarding GEORGE FLOYD r.i.p), especially in Black History Month and take it back!! NOT OK! An immediate apology is in order, sir.”
Elsewhere in the NYT interview, Tom said that cheating on Ariana Madix got him more hate than former That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson, who is in jail for 30 years for rape. “I did what I did because I was in an unhappy place in my life,” Tom explained. “I got caught up in my emotions and fully fell in love. Like, for real.” He added, “The scandal has made the show so big, it’s kind of cool and crazy. Even though it’s negative and at my expense.”