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Tom Sandoval, who shot to infamy last year when his affair with his "Vanderpump Rules" castmate was revealed in all its salacious glory, has apologized for comparing the "Scandoval" controversy to the O.J. Simpson case and the police killing of George Floyd.
Sandoval was the subject of a New York Times Magazine profile published on Tuesday that charted the fallout from the scandal and the impact it's had on his life. After the news broke in March 2023 that Sandoval had been cheating on his longtime girlfriend (and “Vanderpump” cast member) Ariana Madix with their close friend Rachel Leviss, Sandoval and Leviss became the subject of intense scrutiny from viewers — as well as from those who had never watched the show.
Sandoval, who isn’t exactly known for his self-awareness (see, for example, the shirtless promo he recorded for his ... podcast), told the Times magazine that he felt like he "got more hate than Danny Masterson," the Scientologist actor who was convicted of raping two women last year.
He also made a clumsy comparison between the attention that his affair received and other — far more culturally and politically significant — moments in recent U.S. history.
“I’m not a pop-culture historian really,” he told the magazine, “but 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?” (“Really weird” is not how I would characterize that comparison, no.)
That comment in particular sparked even more furor, and Sandoval — in the latest of mea culpas that he's made over the past year — backtracked on his Instagram Story later on Tuesday.
“My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain the level of national media attention my affair received," he wrote. "The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed."