Ariana Madix‘s friendships with several of her Vanderpump Rules costars became fractured while filming season 11 — but is there anyone she has since reconciled with off screen?
Ariana, 39, was asked by Bustle who she is still friends with from the show, replying in her Monday, May 19, profile, “Katie [Maloney] and I talk every day. Not only is she a really great friend of mine, but we’re in business together.”
While Ariana also called Dayna Kathan one of her “best friends,” she had a different update on her bond with Scheana Shay. “Scheana and I will say hi every now and again,” she said,”It’s about to be her birthday, so we’ll check in.”
The Vanderpump Rules cast found themselves at odds while capturing the aftermath of Tom Sandoval‘s cheating scandal with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss and split from Ariana. Lala Kent and Scheana’s decisions to keep filming with Sandoval, 42, put them at odds with Ariana and Katie.
“I’m going to be real about Ariana. She coasts through every single f***ing season. And we are asking you to have one conversation with Tom Sandoval — the guy you shoved down our throats for so many years,” Lala, 34, said on an episode of the Vanderpump Rules After Show in May 2024. “That guy, who you still live with. We are asking you to have one conversation and you can’t do that?”
Lala later clarified that she didn’t have any regrets about her falling out with Ariana, which viewers caught a glimpse of during the season 11 reunion.
“It was hard this season. I was talking about things that we’ve all spoken about. And then when a camera comes up, everyone runs scared. I have Ariana, who I personally believe really forgot why she was catapulted into opportunity,” she claimed on a June 2024 episode of the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast. “Again, [I’m] so happy for you, but let’s not forget where we come from. None of us have anything without Vanderpump Rules. What we built outside of it, we should be very proud of.”
As a result of Scheana’s close bond with Lala, she also drifted apart from Ariana. “We talk here and there. I think no matter what, Ariana and I are always going to have such a deep love for each other,” Scheana, 40, said on a March episode of her “Scheananigans” podcast. “I hope she reads my [upcoming] book.”
Scheana noted how her upcoming memoir, My Good Side, could offer clarity, adding, “Maybe has a better understanding for some of my actions over the past couple of years and understands a little more about my mental state and what I was going through. I write about everything up until a few months ago.”
Ariana was asked by Bustle about Scheana’s memoir — and whether it inspired her to write about her experiences.
“I would consider it, but I don’t know what the angle would be,” she noted. “I know that it’s hard to write a memoir, so congratulations to her for sure.”
The one-time besties won’t have a chance to hash out their issues on screen since Bravo picked VPR up for season 12 — but with an entirely new cast. Ariana, for her part, isn’t ruling out a reality TV return if it is very different from her time on Vanderpump Rules.
“It would have to be the right show, the right team, the right tone,” she added on Monday. “I would never want to do anything that ever resembles something like a Vanderpump Rules ever again.”
