Tom Schwartz’s brother, Bert Schwartz, was hospitalized in July for cirrhosis due to his addiction to alcohol.
“I got really bad news about my brother this morning,” Schwartz told Lisa Vanderpump the latest episode of “Vanderpump Rules,” which aired Tuesday.
Schwartz said that his brother entered rehab for the third time, but this time, he had to be “rushed to the hospital.”
“I didn’t realize it was this bad, but I think he has cirrhosis, and that’s really serious if you know anything about it,” Schwartz told Vanderpump.
Cirrhosis is a “severe scarring of the liver,” and it’s often “caused by many forms of liver diseases and conditions,” such as “chronic alcoholism,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Bert used to be this like ray of sunshine, and there was this moment where he got jumped outside of a bar, and he was just kinda never the same,” Schwartz recalled in a confessional.
Shortly afterwards, Bert “slowly started developing a dependency on alcohol.”
“Any form of addiction and the impact it has on the whole family is brutal, you know? Seeing someone I love suffer so much, because of their dependency on alcohol, it’s made me rethink my moderation,” he admitted.
The Bravolebrity, 41, has previously mentioned his triplet brothers –– Bert, Billy and Brandon –– on the show and explained how they live at home in Florida.
“The ballad of Billy, Bert, and Brandon. They’re the best. I love my brothers so much,” he told the Daily Dish in 2017. “They’re such sweet kids. They have such a great dynamic. It’s a dynamic that only triplets can have. They have so much history and chemistry.”
In 2016, Schwartz’s friends and co-stars Jax Taylor and Tom Sandoval even flew out the three brothers to surprise him for his wedding to Katie Maloney.
The Schwartz and Sandy’s co-owner has not shared an update on how his brother has been doing since he filmed the scene over the summer.
Schwartz and the rest of the “Vanderpump Rules” group have been known to let their hair loose with several cocktails, but he also confided in co-star Lala Kent –– who’s been sober for five years –– that he’s become “sober curious.”
When people are “sober curious,” it means that someone has “chosen to avoid alcohol for personal or wellness reasons” and focuses on practicing “more moderate and mindful drinking,” but they aren’t completely sober, according to Healthline.
Many of Schwartz’s co-stars have also cut back on drinking.
Scheana Shay stopped drinking while taking the prescription Zoloft to help curb her OCD and anxiety, while James Kennedy was also previously sober for two years.
During the Season 11 premiere aired earlier this year, Kennedy confirmed that he was once again “not drinking.”
“Just Red Bulls and Fiji water. I’m meditating every day. I don’t think I will ever drink again. This is 100 percent my decision. Technically I am still California sober. It just makes my day better,” he said.
Sandoval also quit drinking alcohol in the aftermath of his cheating scandal with Raquel Leviss.
“If I wasn’t working out, I was drinking. If I wasn’t drinking, I was working out,” he recalled on a September episode of his podcast, “Everybody Loves Tom.”
However, Sandoval previously told E! News that after eight-and-a-half months, be began drinking again.
“I decided I’ve gotten through all the things I wanted to get through—going to a music festival, doing BravoCon, filming an entire season of ‘Vanderpump Rules,’ doing my interviews,” he explained.
