Tom Sandoval is being picked apart online for having the gall to compare the notoriety of his cheating scandal, Scandoval, to O.J. Simpson’s trial and George Floyd’s murder.
The New York Times asked the “Vanderpump Rules” star, 41, in a profile published Tuesday why he thought his affair with Raquel Leviss had gotten “so big” in the media, and he responded that he is “not a pop-culture historian really” before putting his foot in his mouth.
“I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?” he added.
The profile notes that even then a member of Sandoval’s “crisis PR” team, Rylie, knew Sandoval had said something inappropriate, telling the journalist, “Sometimes he says too much, and the following day forgets what he says.”
Times contributor Irina Aleksander tried to explain away what the Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras frontman meant, writing, “He was trying to express the oddity of becoming the symbolic center of a nationwide discussion and a major news story.”
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However, several people, including Sandoval’s co-star Katie Maloney, have become incensed by the Bravolebrity’s comments since they were published online.
“Hey Tom Schwartz you wanna come explain what he was really trying to say? … the f–k?” Maloney, 37, commended under an Instagram post of Sandoval’s quote, referencing her ex-husband and Sandoval’s best friend and business partner.
“Real Housewives of Miami” star Guerdy Abraira also chimed in, “PLEASE reflect on this repulsive statement you made (regarding GEORGE FLOYD r.i.p) especially on black history month and take it back!! NOT OK! An immediate apology is in order Sir!”
She added, “The disrespect…and on black history month…WOW just plz.”
“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” star Jordan Emanuel — who, like Abraira, is black — then wrote, “Comparing slinging dick to a Black man being murdered in front of our eyes during Black History Month is something I just don’t have words for.”
Sandoval’s reps declined Pvnew’s request for comment on the backlash, and he has not addressed the criticism on social media.
Scandoval — the months-long affair between Sandoval and Leviss, 29, that led to the end of his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix — certainly infiltrated the zeitgeist in 2023; it even scored Madix, 38, an invitation to the White House for the annual Correspondents’ Dinner.
However, the criminal killing of Floyd in May 2020 caused a racial reckoning in the United States and abroad that led to hundreds of protests worldwide and the defunding of several police departments.
Simpson’s case in 1994 similarly played on the racial tensions in America, given that a famous black man was on trial for the murder of his estranged white wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.
When the former NFL star, now 76, was found not guilty, the country was divided, with the black majority thinking he had been vindicated and the white majority thinking he had gotten away with murder.
Sandoval, however, is not the first Bravolebrity to make a tone-deaf comparison to the latter case.
In March 2023, Carl Radke also compared Scandoval to Simpson’s murder trial.
“It was happening in real time, kind of like the O.J. Simpson car chase,” the “Summer House” star, 39, told Pvnew exclusively at the time.
“People were tuning in live; you were picking up new information about this scandal like every day, every minute. And I don’t think I can remember anything quite like that.”
