[Vanderpump Rules] Tom Sandoval Threatens Ex-Assistant Ann Maddox With Legal Action Over Podcast, Accuses Her of "Betrayal" & Lying, and Claims Ariana Never Wanted Her Around, Plus Ariana Suggests Ann Was "Fired" as Schwartz & Katie Weigh in

[Ubiquitous]

While looking back on Ann’s interactions with his ex-girlfriend, Ariana
Madix, 38, the Vanderpump Rules star, 41, admitted Ann may soon get a letter
from his lawyer as he accused his one-time employee of “betrayal.” Plus, Tom
Schwartz, 40, shaded her for seemingly putting on a performance on the show
as she attempted to get hired by Ariana.

“At a really delicate, fragile time of my life, she asked Ariana to work for
her. Literally on a normal Monday work day wearing a suit, which she never
does,” Sandoval recalled on the April 2 episode of the Pump Rules: After
Show.

“Were there cameras up?” Schwartz asked.

“Yeah,” Sandoval confirmed.

“That’s why. Putting on a performance,” Schwartz suspected of Ann.

Although Ann was Sandoval’s assistant, she expressed interest in working for
Ariana after Ariana came to her for recommendations.

“I needed an assistant because I was, things were falling through the cracks,
and I only know one assistant, Ann, so I thought I should ask her for
recommendations, and plus, she’s great at what she does,” Ariana explained.

“But then I feel like she was at a point where she just felt she was so
unhappy at her job. It was a lot of pressure because I felt really bad
because I didn’t want her to think that I was going to poach her, but I also
didn’t want her to think that I wasn’t hiring because I didn’t think she
wouldn’t do a good job. I didn’t want her to feel bad in any way,” she
continued.

According to Ariana, Ann “ended up getting fired.” So, she “should’ve just
poached her.”

“And then part of me felt like, I would be just like him,” she noted.

Then, as Katie Maloney, 37, accused Sandoval of failing to give any respect
to Ariana, Jax Taylor, 44, wondered if Sandoval made Ann sign an NDA.

“Yeah… She started a podcast. It’s called ‘I Signed an NDA.’ She’s about to
get a letter from my lawyer,” Sandoval replied.

“It’s annoying because she’s low-key saying things that are not true,” he
went on. “I saw in some interview she’s like, ‘I would go there and Ariana
would already be up and doing stuff and she’s always busy, and Tom is doing
this and I have to like…’ I’m just like, ’Girl, you know that Ariana wouldn’t
leave her bedroom until at least one in the afternoon.’ I was always up, made
her coffee. I went to bed after her, I woke up before her every day.”

Sandoval was also annoyed by the fact that Ariana reportedly “never wanted
[Ann] around.”

“She would be annoyed that Ann was over, not so much at Ann, but the fact
that somebody was over. And she’d be like, ‘Why do you need an assistant?’
And I’m like, ‘Because, she does things for me,'” he explained. “She waters
all Ariana’s plants, keeps everything stocked in the house, it hurt. It made
it seem like she just was very publicly going to Katie and Ariana, of all
people, that’s a huge conflict of interest. It seems like a betrayal.”

During another segment of the show, Ariana explained what Ann’s job entailed
during her employment with Sandoval.

“She’s an assistant. She’s not a housekeeper. She’s not a maid,” Ariana
stated. “I have friends who have a house manager. They come in, organize
packages, open packages, they come in, and there’s some dishes in the sink
and they put them in the dishwasher, stuff like that to me is like not out of
the realm of something that Ann would do that wouldn’t be weird, but this big
huge project of having to clean up the kitchen island and people’s hair off
the floor… These things are not abnormal for him.”

“It just seems like so inappropriate to me, and then I feel like I’m being
gaslit into thinking it should be appropriate,” she added.

“It’s not,” Katie replied as Sandoval defended her job requirements.

“She tidies up whatever from the night before, dishes, cups, whatever,
glassware, and then it’s like checking emails, going through scheduling. She
gets on the phone with customer service because I hate getting on the phone
with customer care or tech support. That is a nightmare to me. She doesn’t
touch dirty laundry, though,” he clarified.

Still, Ariana was unimpressed.

“You create filth, you think that’s totally cool that you have Ann, who is
not a maid cleaning this stuff up for you. You sleep in the next day. You
don’t do any of it yourself. Fine, if that’s a lifestyle you think is
acceptable. It’s not how I want to live,” she stated.

Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.

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Let's go Brandon!

[Ubiquitous]

Reality star Faith Stowers, who first appeared on “Vanderpump Rules” in 2015
as a supporting cast member, is suing the hit show’s production companies,
its network Bravo, and parent company, NBCUniversal, for discrimination,
retaliation, and other claims.

According to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Friday and obtained by Page
Six, Stowers alleges she was “subjected to racism, sexual harassment and
physical assault in just her first season.”

Stowers — who is black — claims “Pump Rules” executive producer Lisa
Vanderpump asked her to be on the show to add “color” to the cast and
highlights how she was allegedly disparaged because of her race.

She points out that co-stars allegedly showcased “overtly racist social media
harassment campaigns,” in which they accused her of going absent without
official leave from her past tenure in the military, of being a thief and a
career criminal that was wanted by the LAPD.

The allegations are in reference to a 2020 scandal involving “Pump Rules”
alums Jax Taylor, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, in which their racist
behavior toward Stowers was brought to the forefront at the peak of the Black
Lives Matter movement.

Taylor’s 2017 tweet accusing his black co-star of committing crimes
resurfaced at the time, and read, “She’s wanted by the police for grand theft
auto and ‘awol’ from military, bad idea to be on a reality show dude.
Someone’s going to jail.”

Schroeder, for her part, said in a now-deleted “Bitch Bible” podcast episode
in 2018 that she and Doute actually called police to try and have them arrest
Stowers because they thought she looked like another black woman who was
wanted for allegedly drugging men and stealing watches.

“We are like, we just solved a f—king crime,” the “Next Level Basic” author
reportedly said on the podcast at the time. “We start calling the police. The
police don’t give a f—k.”

Doute, meanwhile, posted a photo of the wanted woman, and said in a since-
deleted 2018 tweet, “hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look
familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t
wanna go there but I’m going there.”

Stowers says in her suit that she wanted to speak out — prior to the Black
Lives Matter movement — when her former co-stars first made the remarks but
NBC allegedly threatened her with “ruinous legal action.”

Once the accusations against Stowers finally became public following the
racial discourse in America prompted by George Floyd’s death, Schroeder and
Doute apologized for their actions in June 2020.

Bravo then decided to fire them just days later, and Stowers exclusively told
Page Six at the time she felt “vindicated” that her ex-co-stars had been let
go.

However, the reality star alleges in her complaint that “now that the racial
reckoning of 2020 has receded,” NBC and production company Evolution have
“reverted to their old ways,” pointing out that co-stars who had been fired
as a result of her scandal were recently rehired for the new Bravo show “The
Valley.”

Stowers states in her suit that Taylor and Doute now both star in the new
reality series. Schroeder was offered a spot on the cast but turned it down.

Aside from the parties involved in that major scandal, Stowers also accuses
Taylor’s estranged wife, Brittany Cartwright, of hurling racial slurs at her
and mocking her “nappy” hair.

Stowers was involved in a cheating scandal with Taylor when he and Cartwright
were just dating.

Separately in the suit, Stowers also claims she was a victim of sexual
harassment and physical violence, noting she developed feelings for “Pump
Rules” star Lala Kent and producers allegedly forced them to share a bed on a
cast trip.

“Production pressured Kent and Stowers to ‘get intimate’ and touch each other
sensually on camera,'” the complaint alleges. “All of this was greatly
distressing to [the plaintiff].”

Stowers alleges at one point, when her relationship with Kent soured, the
“Give Them Lala” podcast host allegedly pulled a knife on her, “holding it to
her neck and threatening to ‘cut a bitch'” with cameras rolling.

A source tells Page Six exclusively that the expecting mom is left “stunned”
by Stowers’ allegations because they “never happened.”

“Stowers is looking to promote her podcast,” the insider says, adding that
they hope “NBC and Bravo defend themselves vigorously. This is insane.”

Stowers accuses NBC and Evolution of trying to cover up the alleged incident,
claiming she was discouraged from speaking about what allegedly occurred to
police or the media.

She claims the media companies then retaliated against her by allegedly
asking her to sign a contract that would make her a “volunteer” on the show
who did not get paid for additional seasons.

Stowers told Page Six in 2017 following her exit from “Pump Rules,” “I didn’t
want to be a part of this season. Production kept trying to get me to come
back as a friend.”

Her attorneys, Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman, are the same lawyers behind
Bethenny Frankel’s “reality TV reckoning,” which aims to spotlight reality
TV’s alleged toxic work environment practices.

Aside from Stowers, ex-Bravoleb NeNe Leakes previously sued the network for
discrimination, citing her own alleged experiences with racism while on “Real
Housewives of Atlanta,” but later dropped the case.

Page Six has reached out to reps for Bravo, NBCUniversal, Kent, Schroeder and
Doute for comment but did not immediately hear back. Cartwright and Taylor’s
rep declined to comment.

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Let's go Brandon!