Does Lisa Vanderpump Still Trust Tom Sandoval as a Business Partner?
Amid the situation involving Vanderpump Rules’ Sandoval, Lisa shared her perspective on continuing to work with him.
On the March 8 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Lisa Vanderpump joined the titular host in the Clubhouse to discuss the current situation involving Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix, and Raquel Leviss. While fans want many things clarified at the moment, Andy shared that the “number one question” social media users sent in for Lisa that night had to do with her future business relationship with Sandoval.
“Given the negative backlash from this,” Andy said, reading a tweet to Lisa, “are you considering buying out Sandoval’s ownership in Tom Tom?”
“Well, you’re gonna see something in the reunion that the dynamic did change,” Lisa responded. “We haven’t really discussed that.”
“No, they’re my partners,” she continued, referring to Sandoval and Tom Schwartz. “I’m gonna stick by them unless they need the money.” Still, she can’t say with total certainty what the future holds for their business relationship. “I don’t know. I really don’t know,” she said. “It’s so quick and it feels like such a rough and bumpy ride. I haven’t really made any decisions about anything.”
Later, when Lisa was asked by a virtual fan if she still trusts Sandoval given the details of the situation, she responded with a laugh, “I never really trusted Tom.”
“I mean, I trust that he wouldn’t steal or anything like that,” she clarified. “But to follow through, I mean, you’ve seen the show right? It’s been, like, a lot of head banging on my part.”
Vanderpump Rules documented Lisa, Ken Todd, Sandoval, and Schwartz opening Tom Tom together in 2018, with the Toms each making a $50,000 investment for 5% of the business. On the March 8 episode of Vanderpump Rules, Lisa and Ken offered to return their investment to help them open their new bar, Schwartz & Sandy’s. “You can have your investment back, and we will still give you the option to buy back into Tom Tom within a year,” Lisa said, to which Ken added, “What she means is if you become desperate and you need to buy [their partner Greg] out, or whatever, the money’s there.”
Schwartz and Sandoval had mixed feelings about the offer. “I feel like after four years of working at Tom Tom and putting in a good amount of what I would say is sweat equity, to be offered just like our initial investment back doesn’t seem quite fair,” Sandoval said. “But we’re getting to a point where we have to explore all options.”
“This is actually comforting,” Schwartz weighed in. “I don’t want to do that. We’re not not desperate, but this is like a last resort.”
Check out the video above to see more from Lisa’s WWHL appearance.
Watch Vanderpump Rules on Bravo Wednesdays at 9/8c and the next day on Peacock. And catch up on all past seasons of Vanderpump Rules on Peacock.
