Ariana Madix is opening up about leaving Vanderpump Rules and reveals she never returned to the Bravo reality series after walking off in the Season 11 finale.
Vanderpump Rules is getting a complete reboot following “Scandoval,” the scandal that broke up the reality series’ core cast. The show took a break following Season 11 before the network announced it was moving forward with a whole different cast.
However, reboot or not, Madix says she was not returning to the long-running franchise.
“I don’t think I was ever going to go back to Vanderpump Rules. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that publicly, but I was never going to,” the Love Island USA host told People’s Style Watch. “It just didn’t feel right. Not in any sort of rude way, not in a professional, ‘We don’t need this,’ not in a, ‘I’m too good for this’, but it just didn’t feel right.”
She continued, “If I did go back, I wouldn’t have been able to do the job that would make a good show. And so it just wasn’t going to make sense, the story didn’t make sense.”
Madix noted that she “was never really made for reality TV,” adding, “I don’t think I’ve ever been what makes ‘a good reality star.’ I think in some ways that’s what has made me a good reality star. But that being said, I think that a lot of times I got in my head.”
Working on her mental health, allowed Madix to realize that a reality TV environment was “maybe that’s not the best setting for me, and it’s not a setting that really allows me to be myself.”
“And when you’re not being yourself, you get yourself into situations where you’re saying or doing things that you don’t really back or believe in,” she said.
Madix has found other opportunities since Vanderpump Rules, hosting Love Island USA for Peacock, making a guest appearance on Will Trent, and made a return to Broadway in the musical Chicago.
