Tom Schwartz Sets the Record Straight on His “Situationship” with Jo (UPDATED)
He also called out his ex-wife, Katie Maloney, for this “double standard.”
UPDATED (June 20, 10:36 A.M.): Tom Schwartz further elaborated on his relationship with Jo — and his relationship status in general — during a recent appearance on Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright's podcast. "I’m not dating anyone. I don’t have a secret girlfriend that lives with me. I’m single and not ready to mingle,” he said. “I think [Jo]’s hilarious, beautiful, talented, Jo’s the sh-t. I just don’t want a girlfriend. I just got out of a 12-year relationship.”
Going on to reflect on said 12-year relationship with Katie, Schwartz said that while he's "not, like, in love with her," he still "love[s] her" and they're "cordial" at the moment.
The original story continues below.
For the first time in Vanderpump Rules history, Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz did not sit next to each other at the reunion.
The couple announced their separation after filming wrapped on Season 9, and the two were in the process of finalizing their divorce when the cameras picked back up for Season 10. As Tom and Katie explored being single for the first time in more than a decade, the Something About Her co-founder dated Satchel Clendenin, while Tom engaged in a make-out with Raquel Leviss, and he got a few of the others talking when he revealed he was living with a female roommate, Jo Wenberg.
Tom Schwartz and Jo Wenberg's Relationship
On Part 1 of the reunion, which aired on May 24, Schwartz and Katie opened up about their decision to divorce, and Schwartz came clean about the true nature of his relationship with Jo.
It turns out that while Jo was living in his apartment, Schwartz said she “wasn’t a girlfriend, especially at that point.” However, he admitted that their relationship did escalate at one time.
“It did evolve into a situationship, or like a friends-with-benefits thing with clearly defined boundaries,” Schwartz explained. “We were both coming out of long-term relationships, and for a minute there, we were each other’s happy place.”
Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney's Dating Disagreement
Though Schwartz moved on from his ex-wife with Jo and by making out with Raquel at Scheana Shay’s wedding (breaking Katie’s rule about not hooking up with anyone in the friend group), he felt like there was a “double standard” going on.
“Just for the record, had she fallen for someone else in the group, I would have not cared at all,” Schwartz added, before addressing Katie directly. “It just seemed a little rich knowing that, while we were still living together, you were hooking up and having sex with people.”
While Katie pointed out that her ex didn’t personally know any of the people she was dating, Schwartz doubled down on his comment.
“If the roles were reversed and you divorced me in one of the lowest points of your life and I started dating and hooking up with people while we were still living under the same roof, and six months later you made out with, let’s just say Peter [Madrigal] in Mexico, do you think I would have a leg to stand on and be upset with you for that?” Schwartz asked.
Katie asserted that her ex was “not a victim in this.”
“I’m telling you [that] there’s a double standard,” Schwartz responded, noting that his kiss with Raquel was “somehow liberating” as a result.
Find out what happens next by watching Parts 2 and 3 of the reunion.
Where to Watch the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 Reunion Episodes
All reunion episodes, as well as a "Secrets Revealed” episode with additional dramatic and scandalous moments behind the affair that jolted the zeitgeist, are currently streaming on Peacock.
