The cameras stopped rolling on Vanderpump Rules, and that's when it all got real. I'm Jax Taylor. And I'm Brittany Cartwright. And we are talking about everything on our podcast, When Reality Hits.

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Reality Hits.

With Jax Taylor and.

Brittany Cartwright. At Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today on the TMZ podcast.

Hello and welcome to the TMZ podcast. I'm Charlie Cotton, and today I'm joined by Brendan Jeffry on, who is the man behind the Vanderpump Rules story. You broke the story here at TMZ. Can you tell me about the day you got the call that Tom Sandoval was cheating on Arianne Maddox?

My gosh, I literally was about to go to bed and my phone rang from a really good contact. I said, Well, this probably would be a good reason to answer. I picked up and he said, You're not going to believe this. Tom and Arianna are no longer dating. She found out that he was having an affair on her, and I said, Okay. And then it was like, Pause, pause, pause, with Raquel.

Wow.

And then it was, They're going cameras up tomorrow. They're going to start filming again, and they're going to capture the cast for the next at least two weeks reacting to everything that they had found out. So obviously, we have talked about several times about how his phone fell out of his pocket at that show that night. Arianna picked it up, went through the phone, discovered that FaceTime call between the two of them. And yeah, that is when I got the call. The day after was actually, it was the day after that show, which I am shocked that the story didn't break sooner, only because the cast was now, after that Wednesday show, was getting word of it. So all day Wednesday, somehow nothing got out. And you have to think, this is a huge cast. This is a cast of 10 plus people, and nothing leaked out. And yeah, I just happened to get that call. And I came in Friday morning and I made three more calls and we published the story. I mean, it's so crazy. And here we are, three months later, still heavily talking about it.

Wow. Well, we're going to talk about the part three of the reunion today. And we're also going to talk about another big, the biggest reality family, besides the Sandovals, are the Kardashians. The Kardashians all back together with the exes at a big graduation.

Seemingly getting along well.

Seemingly. So let's get into the reunion last night. It was bitter. Some of the things that Adriana said to Raquel were just very very mean. She deserved it, but they were very mean. Let's listen. On the top, let's listen to one of the meanest things Adriana had to say about the cheese grater.

I genuinely was coming from a place of, do you want to be in this relationship because I hear you want...

The answer was yes. And you had already at that point, so shut the up. Fuck yourself with a fucking cheese grater. Fuck you. You fucking suck. You're disgusting. And I wish nothing but the worst fucking shit that could ever happen to a person on you.

The thing is, is like, we don't live our lives by logic.

I can't. It's such a joke.

There was no logic to this. Exactly.

That's what I'm saying. Feelings took over.

So that's pretty nasty stuff. I know that she deserves everything coming to her, Riquel, but the fact that she then went to a mental health institute after this reunion, you can see why.

Why? And I think a lot of people have been talking about this. I went down a rabbit hole last night on Twitter reading what people were saying. And obviously, Raquel does not have many fans at all. But what annoyed me about this reunion was I felt like, okay, this side was made up of Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, and Raquel. The other side was Katie, Arianna, James, and Lala. This side was really coming for them, obviously, because of the wrongdoing. But I felt like they kept interrupting. Every time Sandoval and Raquel wanted to say their piece, explain themselves, give their side of the story, they were cut off by like, Shut up, or F U, or Screw You, or You're a Moron. I get it. That's how you feel. The whole purpose of a reunion is for people to be able to sit down and tell their side of the story and say why they did things. And I felt at points, Andy lost control of the reunion, and they kept letting people like James and Lala interrupt.

James would not shut up the entire time. And he didn't even really involve him. I know he's been with Raquel in the past, but it didn't really involve him, like this particular incident. And he was just shouting swear words.

And useless things.

Useless, just like, I hate you. You fucking suck.

Right. You think you're going to get something finally out of Raquel. Maybe she's going to say something that's headline worthy or worthy of finding out the truth behind it or something. And they just weren't letting them. But then there was a period more than halfway into the last night's episode where they did let her share her piece. But what I thought was interesting was she never got emotional. She never cried. She kept saying how close she was to them and how awful she felt for betraying them and all of this. But she never got emotional. She never broke down.

The thing that struck me when they're going through piece by piece, all of the different things that happened. And when when Raquel is talking to Arianne, having been intimate with her partner for nearly 10 years, it's almost like she's enjoying the lying at the time. They're going to buy the lightning bolt necklace on camera. It's almost like the thrill of it is getting away with it behind their backs on camera. It's like you're embarrassing them to the nation. It feels like that was part of the allure of the whole affair that you're pulling the wool over someone's eyes in public.

They were turned on by it, I think.

I think so. So it'll be interesting to see if they're still turned on by it now that everything has.

Come out. And what's interesting is there was also that scene where, I mean, Andy point blank asked them if they loved each other. They both admitted to feeling like they were in love.

Let's actually listen to them say it right now. We got a clip.

Tom and I had this connection. I felt seen and heard by him, and I haven't.

Felt by me. Didn't feel seen or heard by me.

No, actually, well, if I'm going to be honest.

Because I've been there for you since James was being mean to you when you guys were together. I know that's true. I was the only person who fucking saw or heard you then.

Why couldn't you stop? Why did you have to keep going?

It was almost impossible to turn away from.

You were in love?

Yeah.

You're ugly. You're hideous. I know. You're a rotten on the inside.

Are they in love, though?

I don't know. I think it's a fling. I think people are like, Oh, my God. They're meant for each other. They're not going to be together. I think it's exactly actually, I will agree with Lala that she said this last night on the episode. She said he did this to Ariana, and he's going to do the same thing to you, Raquel. Once a cheater, always a cheater. I believe in it. So it's fun while it lasted. But in the long run, she's burnt an entire group of friends. I truthfully do think that a lot of the cast has been telling people that they don't want to film with Tom and Riquel when they come back for next season, which starts filming at the end of June. So it'll be interesting to see how they move forward because I get the cast being mad at Tom and Riquel. But also this.

Show has.

Never been bigger. Right. And this is keeping the show on the air.

It was.

Going nowhere fast before this. The ratings were getting lower and lower as the seasons went on as we approach season 10. And then this happened and the ratings exploded, obviously. So how do you not film scenes with them? I mean, they are the cast members that you need. If either one of them didn't come back to the show, what's the show?

It's not the show anymore. People stop watching.

Right. People want to hear from them. They want to see scenes with them. They want to see them reacting and talking about all of this still. So I don't know. They'll get paid.

That's how they'll come back to the table. They're like, We're going to double your salaries, everyone. Correct. Will you film with them now?

Right. I think loosely, they say it's love or they're in love. But I don't think so. No way. She's been in a mental health facility for several days, weeks.

What facility is that? Is she in a straight jacket or is she in a circle with people saying, My name is Raquel.

Everyone, hi? I don't think so. I think it's a lot of counseling and therapy. I've heard things that she has a lot of also trauma, apparently, from her childhood, what that is. I don't know. But I know there's a lot of speculation of people, fans that don't think that she's getting mental health, but I do. I do too. You need it. I think this really messed her up. I don't think she thought it was, but I think it did.

It'd be hard knowing that this is how your closest friends feel about you, let alone the rest of the country, the rest of the world. I had my sister from Australia texting up a storm last night. Can you believe this? Like you're going to be always known as that woman, that homewrecker. There's nothing she's going to do the rest of her life that's going to be a bigger, more global story than this. So that is holding on to that thought must be very hard. And you would have to work through that. Man. It's a lot. It's a lot. Let's throw to one more clip, actually, because after the reunion, Andy and Raquel, nearly a week later, had a sit down to discuss everything. And Raquel confessed even more. She exposed more of the lies that Sandoval and herself had been telling. So let's listen to the clip now.

The second time was it was actually during Mexico.

I was in Mexico? Did you.

Guys have.

Sex multiple.

Times in Mexico? Yeah. I know that the reason why Tom wanted to lie about it is because it's a really bad look to hook up with someone's boyfriend in their own house when they've gone out of town, especially for a funeral of all things.

That's the first time you see her get emotional, actually.

It's brutal. I think that because people have always said that Tom Sandoval is a master manipulator and he's very good at coaching. We saw on last week's episode where there was that scene where they were out by the trailers, him and Raquel, and he kept saying to the producer, Can you put the cameras down for a minute? And the guy said, Whenever cast members are with another cast member, we have to keep rolling.

Yeah, you guys just want to get your stories straight.

We don't want that. But in that moment, anyone that knows the show and knows Tom Sandoval at this point, knows that what he was trying to do was coach Raquel before they went back out there. And this is what our narrative is going to be. And this is what they're going to talk about. And this is the story that we should stick to. She broke down here and she cave. And the producer, this producer is brilliant, got her to open up and really say, Listen, the timeline isn't fully what Tom is saying. We did hook up multiple times, had sex when we were in Mexico for Shina's wedding.

And then when Arianna's grandma died, she went out of town. Tom had her over to the house he shares with Arianna, and they banged there. So I mean, oh, my God. What a tangled web of lies that are coming out now.

And there's no remorse. And this is what a lot of people have said. Tom Swarts, who's obviously one of Tom Sandoval's best friends and their business partners, and they've been on the show forever together, even came out yesterday in a podcast saying how Tom has just shown no remorse. He's not really apologized for what he did. He's not really face to face said to Ariana, I am sorry. He's just scooted around it. So I'm curious to see if we ever get an actual I'm sorry from Tom Sandoval.

I mean, he did say sorry, but in.

His own way, I guess. In his own way, I guess. Yeah. And people just aren't accepting it or liking it.

And this scandal is not even over. There's another Unseen Bits next week.

So stay tuned. I know. I thought I even forgot about that. And when I saw the promo last night, I was like, Oh, my gosh, we have a fourth week. We're not even.

Done yet. Okay, I think we've spent enough time.

On this drama. We've given them enough.

We've given them enough time until next week. We'll give them some more time. The Kardashians, the girls and their exes were all out at a preschool graduation.

They're growing up. The kids are growing up. They are.

Tristan Thompson was there to support True, his daughter with Chloe. Travis Scott was there to support Stormy, his daughter with Kiley. And Black China, or Angela White, as she likes to be known now, was there with Dream, the daughter she shares with Rob Kadesh. And so it was interesting to see them all mingling around in the same place. Apparently, Tristan and Chloe were very buddy buddy. The others weren't seen talking.

Too much. Yeah. Now, I had spoken to someone who said that China never interacted with any of the Kardashian. Kind of interesting where Rob was. I wonder why. I mean, we know that he doesn't really like to go out in public.

But for your daughter...

I know it's a.

Little off. She only graduates preschool once as well.

And Travis Scott was there, but we were told that he didn't really interact with Kiley at all. He was with their kid, obviously, hanging out with the kid at one point. Then Kiley was over talking to the family. No Kim, no Kanye. No Chris. But still, I mean, a Kardashian family affair. Kind of feel like the Kardashian's are getting less publicity than the Vander pumps right now.

I know. Well, it's the two biggest families, so to speak, in reality TV right now, the Kardashian's and the Sander Valt. But the Sander Valt are like, Wow, it's getting all the headlines. The Kardashians will be plotting something right now.

They're always plotting something for that TV show. And we were told that there was no PDA or anything, who they probably wouldn't put it on anyways at a preschool graduation. But the people that we spoke to that were there said there was no... They didn't get the inkling that Chloe and Tristan were a couple at all. They acted very much like cop parents. And I know she said in a recent interview, too, I think yesterday that she's not with him and that she's learned to set her boundaries. So co parents all the way.

What happens at a preschool graduation? You wear a gown, you go up on stage and get your little preschool diploma.

What happens? They must give him something like cake or something to keep him happy, maybe. But everyone looked happy. Kiley had posted a picture with the kids and it looks like a good.

Old time. They're really good to their exes, the Kardashans. Kim's never gone after Kanye, or none of them have gone after their exes in a big way, even when.

They've been wrong. And they've never really pushed them out. If you think about it, Scott Disick's still around. They're smart. They don't want their secrets to come out. That's what I think it is. They know that if they piss them off, they could run out and tell all their secrets. So I think they keep them close and happy.

I like that. All right. Well, thank you very much for being here and.

Joining me. It's always fun. I would never think you'd be a Vanderpump guy, by the way.

My wife is so I am now. Last thing, when they make the movie, the Blockbuster about the Vanderpump Rules scandal, you'll obviously be like, Your character will be there. You're the one who broke the story. Who do you want to play you in the Vanderpump Rules movie?

That's a good question.

Ryan Gosling?

I don't have an answer. Check back with me next week. Who would I want me.

To play? Patrick Dempsey?

Patrick Dempsey. M.

Ryan Gosling.

Ryan Gosling? Yeah.

Maybe Timothy Shalome could do you.

I'll stick with Ryan.

Okay.

Ryan Gosling. I'll stick with Ryan.

There we go. Well, thank you very much for joining us here today, guys. We'll see you back tomorrow.