Ariana Madix is happy to no longer keep the secret of Vanderpump Rules’ season 12 casting shakeup.
“I was just relieved that the public finally was privy to the conversations that we had been having,” Madix, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly at TheWrap’s Power Women Summit 2024 in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, December 3. “So, it’s nice that that news is out there and yeah, now I don’t have to sit here holding that.”
As for whether she has plans to pop up on the spinoff series The Valley, Maddix said, “No, I don’t.” However, she’s happy to host the new cast of VPR at her and Katie Maloney’s sandwich shop, Something About Her — and presumably film there, too.
“If any of those kids next door at SUR want to pop into Something About Her and have a sandwich and have a little argument over some Cameron sandwiches and some Avaline wine, we’d love to have them,” she shared.
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Last month, Bravo announced that the upcoming season of VPR will feature longtime star Lisa Vanderpump with a completely new group of “close SUR-vers who are as complicatedly involved with one another as their iconic predecessors.” Filming will begin in 2025 and the cast has yet to be revealed.
A spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, VPR premiered in 2013 and follows the professional and personal drama among the staff of Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR. Madix appeared in the first two seasons as a guest and recurring star before being upgraded to the main cast for season 3 in 2014.
Madix garnered newfound fame after she and her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval’s split played out on seasons 10 and 11 of the series. Us confirmed in March 2023 that the pair split after nine years of dating after Sandoval, 42, cheated on her with costar Rachel Leviss. The mega-viral fallout was famously dubbed “Scandoval.”
While Madix’s time on VPR has come to an end, she is already looking forward to what’s next. “I would love to go back to Broadway,” Madix, who made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago earlier this year, told Us. “I’m turning 40 next year in 2025, so I would love to feel that feeling.” Just last week, the reality star performed for one of her biggest audiences yet, singing “Love Fool” on a float during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast.
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She continued: “I’m manifesting this right now. Feel that feeling that so many women talk about when they hit 40 or in their late 30s, 40s, that they feel like so themselves and so comfortable with themselves. I’m looking forward to feeling that. I don’t know that I’ve felt that yet, so I’m manifesting that now for myself. “
Having been in the entertainment industry for “going on 15, 20 years,” Madix said she finally feels like she’s “stepped into myself and what I really love and what I believe in,” adding, “I have the most amazing team of people around me, and so, it feels good to feel like I’m somewhat in control of my own destiny at this point.”
The Love Island USA host went on to gush about her boyfriend, Daniel Wai, whom she started dating in April 2023. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who feels the way about me that Daniel feels. He thinks I am the most beautiful person in the world, the funniest person in the world, the smartest,” she shared. “He’s constantly telling me how smart I am and how much he believes in me, and I just feel like having that kind of partner makes everything feel so easy. I never feel stressed. I never feel worried, and he’s always reassuring me, and it feels really nice.”
When asked if she thinks wedding bells could be in the future, Madix teased, “I don’t know.”
With reporting by Mariel Turner
