Ariana Madix on Why She Came Back to Vanderpump Rules This Season, What’s Surprised Her Watching It

The VPR co-stars and besties this season dropped by Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday to break down their rejuvenated show — nothing like a scandal to boost ratings! — and throw some shade at their male co-stars.

They also dropped a huge announcement that feels like it’s been decades in coming. Their sandwich shop Something About Her is both very real and very much happening, and now it even has a grand opening set for May 22. This year!

As for the show, it was almost a very different season, with Ariana admitting she nearly didn’t come back. “I was hesitant to be honest,” she admitted when Andy asked her about it. But then she got really candid about why she decided to — or at least it was the first reason she listed.

“I felt like I wasn’t in a position financially, really, to walk away,” she admitted, “and I also felt like I should keep living my life.” She said she’d always shared “the good, bad, and the ugly” so why should that change?

“That’s kind of what we’ve been doing for how many seasons,” she said. “I felt like maybe I owed it to people to let them in on that phase of my life, even though it was like really bad. So you’re watching me, like, very slowly try to pick myself up, I think.”

She also agreed that some part of it might be a “why should I have to be the one to leave? While Sandoval did return for Season 11, the other part to their tryst, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, opted out to focus on her mental health. She has since launched a podcast that in part breaks down each new episode of VPR to share her side of the story.

As for her experience on the show, it’s been two very different things. One happened while they were taping, with Ariana sharing, “I really thought that we were like the freaking Spice Girls.”

Then, however, “I was watching it and I was like, ‘Oh, okay, uh, maybe not so much.'” She explained that she “just wasn’t reading into situations as much as I should have.”

Ariana may have thought she and the ladies of VPR were in lockstep this season, but viewers at home — thanks to those pesky confessionals and scenes Ariana wasn’t a part of (or even sometimes right behind her back) — the ladies aren’t quite as supportive of her journey this season as she might have anticipated.

She also revealed that she and Sandoval were already in a “bad place,” as far as their relationship was concerned, even before she uncovered he’d been cheating on her with her then-BFF Rachel. That prompted the cameras to start rolling again on Season 10, culminating in a very, very uncomfortable reunion.

It started when a viewer asked her how long she might have stayed with Sandoval had the cheating affair never been exposed and Ariana had to admit, “I’m not sure.”

“The relationship was in a bad place,” she added. “I think there are other factors that contributed to that, obviously I wasn’t aware of, but I take commitment seriously. So I’m not sure, actually.”

While there’s plenty of shade thrown around on VPR (and, well, most Bravo shows), the ladies twice had to tell Andy’s audience that they weren’t trying to shade anyone. But was that the truth?

The first time came during a BFF game to see if they thought the same. Andy was asking a series of questions when he asked if Scheana Shay was a better friend to Sandoval or Ariana this season. Both ladies immediately answered “Sandoval,” which got quite the “oooohhh” reaction from the crowd.

But the bigger not-shady moment came later when they were talking about Jax Taylor’s new bar. A viewer asked how much it would take for Katie Maloney to drop in and get a drink. But then Katie figured out the perfect workaround.

They’d previously discussed how Jax’s new place is really more of a room annexed to an existing bar, so like a party lounge associated with it. It seemed the perfect fix, as Katie wasn’t otherwise sure if she’d even be allowed into a place Jax owned. “Listen, me and Jax really don’t get along,” she asserted.

“Why don’t we just go to Rocco’s? It’s attached, Jax’s is just a bonus room with Rocco’s, we can just go right next door,” she said. Once again, the audience reacted, causing her to turn on them. “It’s not shade,” she insisted. “it’s the truth, holy s–t, oh my god!”

As for the upcoming Season 11 reunion, in response to fan theories that Ariana “eviscerated” Lala Kent and it was friendship ruining, Lala had already replied that only one of those things was true. Ariana added on WWHL, “I will tease that I did not eviscerate anyone whatsoever.”

Uh-oh, does that mean a friendship was ruined? Could it have to do with both Sandoval and Scheana saying that Dancing with the Stars was their dream — they even scored private lessons — only for Madix to land a coveted spot post-Scandoval.

“Did anyone get eviscerated?” Katie wondered of the reunion taping. Everyone agreed that while the tension didn’t reach Season 10 levels, it was a heavy day. “Very changing and altering, for sure, “Katie added.

Elsewhere on the show, Andy pushed Ariana by asking her a series of “would you rather” questions, or a “this or that” game where the “that” was always “or hang out with Tom Sandoval.” He was a little surprised that a few of the setups actually led to her preferring to hang with her ex.

You can check out that game below, as well as another that reveals what Katie really thinks of the VPR guys, Toms Sandoval and Schwartz, Brock Davies, and James Kennedy. And tune in for both Vanderpump Rules and spinoff (with Jax) The Valley every Tuesday night on Bravo.