Reality Star Tom Sandoval Apologizes After Comparing His Cheating Scandal To George Floyd And O.J. Simpson

Tom Sandoval, George Floyd, O.J. Simpson

Reality Star Tom Sandoval Apologizes For Comparing His Cheating Scandal To George Floyd And O.J. Simpson: ‘Inappropriate And Ignorant’

Tom Sandoval is speaking out against the backlash he faced after comparing his infamous cheating scandal to George Floyd and O.J. Simpson in a recent interview.

The Bravo Vanderpump Rules star took to his Instagram Story to respond to the criticism and wrote on Tuesday (Feb. 20),

“My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain he level of national media attention my affair received.”

He continued,

“The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed.”

Tom Sandoval first made headlines nearly a year ago when his affair with his VPR co-star, Raquel Leviss, was exposed. He had been dating fellow VPR star Ariana Madix for nearly a decade, when Ariana Madix discovered inappropriate videos between him and Raquel Leviss, who was also her close friend at the time, on his phone. The affair became known as Scandoval and a topic of conversation, to say the least among their co-stars and the internet.

Speaking about the attention surrounding the affair in an interview with The New York Times week, Tom Sandoval said,

“I’m not a pop-culture historian really, 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?”

The publication pointed out that one of his reps Rylie, 23, began “typing furiously on her phone,” adding in part that Sandoval,

“was trying to express the oddity of becoming the symbolic center of a nationwide discussion and a major news story.”

The disgraced reality star continued,

“I did what I did because I was in an unhappy place in my life, I got caught up in my emotions and fully fell in love. Like, for real.”

Rylie then confessed,

“Sometimes he says too much, and the following day forgets what he says.”

It’s not clear why Sandoval thought the comparison was appropriate. George Floyd was a Black man killed by four Minneapolis police officers in May 2020. His death sparked nationwide social unrest and protests against police brutality. Each of the officers were convicted and sentenced to prison for their involvement.

J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Kiernan Lane, Tou Thao

O.J. Simpson’s case was also high-profile in the mid-90s, when he was acquitted in the brutal stabbing murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman. 

What are your thoughts on Tom Sandoval’s comparison? Let us know in the comments.

[VIA]