Lala Kent claims the entire Vanderpump Rules cast was upset about how Ariana Madix behaved amid filming on season 11 but refused to say a thing about it.
Following a tense finale episode on Tuesday night, Lala, 33, said that while everyone was frustrated by Ariana, 38, they kept quiet and followed her lead as Scheana Shay, 39, reacted to claims of Lala being jealous of Ariana’s success, and Ariana wondered why her confidence was so off-putting to her castmate.
“Off-camera everyone was really pissed off about how she was maneuvering through the season. No one wanted to talk about it, and then all of the sudden, what Ariana says, no one f**king questions,” Lala recalled on the Vanderpump Rules: After Show on May 7. “I’ve never seen someone go from, like, the entire world being so indifferent to this person. It was like no one ever spoke about her, and now what she says f**king goes.”
After Lala suggested that Ariana had suddenly “become God” after being cheated on by Tom Sandoval, 41, many accused her of being envious of the many opportunities that came Ariana’s way amid “Scandoval.” But according to her co-star Scheana, that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t think it was resentful, and I don’t think it was jealousy at all. Lala is very f*cking successful. She’s a bada** and she has built an empire since she left a bad situation. So she should be very proud of everything she’s created for herself and her family,” Scheana stated.
“I think Lala was at her breaking point at that moment. Lala had had a lot of tough conversations, and after she got cheated on, she still showed up, and so I understood her frustration in that moment,” Scheana continued, admitting she was also upset at Ariana’s refusal to film with Sandoval.
“She was very emotional all summer, and her life was in a completely different place than she thought it would be at this point, and so I think there were a lot of things she was working through,” Scheana explained. “I think Lala, and I know [Katie Maloney] has also said this, they both wished that when they got cheated on, when they left their relationships, that they maybe got more love from fans than hate, and it was just like, ‘Wow, that would have been really nice if I had that.’ You know, we’ve all felt that way in this group.”
In his own After Show segment, James Kennedy, 32, took up for Ariana.
“I’ve seen someone that’s very, like, ‘Make the best out of a sh*tty situation that happened.’ She’s forever grateful,” he stated of Ariana. “She’s been working her f**king a** off. She’s not half-a**ing anything. You better get a little cocky after that. You don’t want to find me after my Broadway show.”
“She’s taking advantage of the opportunity that was put in front of her,” Brock Davies agreed.
Meanwhile, Ariana said that she’d “been preparing” for this place in her life for years.
“I’ve worked hard to be able to be decent at the types of things that I’m being asked to do. Acting classes. I have a degree in theater. So it’s, like, at any point in time, regardless of whether or not what happened, if those types of jobs came my way, those are the types of jobs that I was preparing for,” she revealed.
Then, of Lala, she added, “It’s just kind of like [Lala is saying], ‘How dare she feel good about herself,’ or like, ‘How dare she find work and success on her own?’”
The Vanderpump Rules season 11 reunion premieres next Tuesday, May 14, at 8/7c on Bravo.
