The 'Vanderpump Rules' alum weighs in on the Scandoval drama and her own FOMO about the most recent season.
Stassi Schroeder isn't down with online vitriol -- but she's not down with Tom Sandoval, either.
The Vanderpump Rules alum is speaking out on Scandoval in a new interview on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast, revealing that the drama revolving around Sandoval cheating on Ariana Madix with Raquel Leviss enticed her to start watching the Bravo reality show again recently. While she has plenty of thoughts about Sandoval as a person and co-star, she won't condone the hate he's receiving from strangers on social media.
"I've been in a position where I've received so much hate before," she said. "I don't like where we're at, like, in society where, like, that's how we punish people."
Schroeder found herself at the center of controversy when she and Vanderpump Rules co-star Kristen Doute were fired from the show in 2020 over racist actions against their former co-star, Faith Stowers. Schroeder apologized, and later appeared on the Tamron Hall show to talk about the fallout. Doute, who was previously in an on-off romance with Sandoval prior to his relationship with Madix, is set to return to Vanderpump Rules in the wake of the Scandoval fallout.
"It's like emotionally beheading people," Schroeder said of the social media backlash now being hurled at Sandoval.
"Who's to decide what the punishment should be? Like, who makes someone the authority on that?" she continued. "What makes this person on their computer the authority on what they think is enough hate for him to receive? I don't get down with that. I really, I don't like it."
But when it comes to her own history with Sandoval, with whom she co-starred on Vanderpump Rules for several years, she says she never liked him.
"Do I like Tom Sandoval? No. Do I think what he did is disgusting and -- like, f**k him!" she added, before softening. "But, like, see now I feel like I'm even adding to it. Like, the online vitriol."
Cooper clarified that what Schroeder is saying, answering a question during an interview, is different than strangers commenting death threats on the reality star's social media photos.
"Let's just like, not do that as a group of people. Let's just not," Schroeder continued. "At some point, that is how people become incredibly depressed and, like, suicidal."
Schroeder did admit to feeling a bit of FOMO about not being on Vanderpump Rules this season, because she would have relished the opportunity to dig into Sandoval while filming. Asked whether she ever liked the TomTom owner, Schroeder didn't mince words.
"No. No, and he never liked me," she said. "Not being on this last season, it's like my talents were wasted."
With a laugh, she continued, "This was when I really could have really just like given it to him and been like, 'I always knew!'"
The Off With My Head author admitted to feeling frustrated with how Sandoval was often portrayed during their time together on the show.
"I felt like he was always so beloved, and I would even say to my producers, I'm like, 'When is he going to get the edit that like I feel like the rest of us see?'" she confessed.
"Why does he keep like getting away with being just this dude who just wants to like, 'Give people things and help people out, man,'" she continued, putting on a mocking tone. "That's not what I'm seeing. I'm seeing somebody who's constantly blaming others for things and dredging things up from the past, and like, just deflecting constantly. If the rest of us look bad, then he looks good. And I've always felt that way."
She added, "The fact that I'm not on it this season -- it's like, f**k."
Schroeder, who is currently pregnant with her second child, said she does "miss" her time on the show, but would be hesitant to bring her family into the world of reality TV today.
"I loved filming," she said. "All my 20s were spent doing that. I loved the camaraderie of it, and I loved all my producers and the team and the cast. Like, it's fun. It's really fun!"
But in her years removed from Vanderpump Rules, she's observed a dichotomy between the show's ratings and the crumbling of the cast's personal lives.
"The success of the show is, like, directly tied to how badly the cast hurts each other, and that like feels weird," she shared. "It's dark. When you really think about it, it's f**king dark."
Schroeder, 34, is still close with former castmates Katie Maloney and Lala Kent, as well as several producers on the series. Schroeder quietly tied the knot with Beau Clark in 2020 and the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Hartford, in 2021. She says she's due with their son this September.
"I don't think I'd want to put my family in a position to be in something where, again, the success is tied to how much you can hurt each other," she said of a potential reality TV return. "It's not, like, a healthy place to be. Like, it's not good on relationships. You can be in the strongest relationship and, I mean, if you think about it, it's like Vanderpump Rules is like 'Who's betraying who? Who's cheating on who? Who's being shady?' And, like, sometimes they -- things are invented that, like, never even happened. So to put that stress on a relationship and then if you have children on top of that, I'm just not sure that that's the healthiest thing for me. But I do miss it, I do."
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