Tom Sandoval’s Assistant on Intercepting Rachel Leviss’ Letters to Him

February 1, 2024 27

Tom Sandoval had a challenging task for his assistant. On the inaugural episode of the We Signed an NDA podcast, Ann Maddox recalled being asked to intercept mail Rachel Leviss sent to Tom after news of the Vanderpump Rules stars’ affair broke.

Ann was assigned the job after Tom’s best friend, Tom Schwartz, stopped agreeing to be the middleman between Rachel and Tom, prompting Tom to tell Rachel to send her correspondence to his home instead.

Rachel had a problem with that, since Ariana Madix, the woman Tom cheated on, was still living in their shared home. Tom’s solution? “My assistant will handle it,” according to said assistant.

“My response to that is, ‘B**ch, I don’t work on Saturdays! I’m your girl Friday, but I don’t work on Saturdays. That’s the end of that,'” Ann said. “Also, Ariana wakes up way earlier than all of us because she is a busy, busy lady, and I don’t come into work until 11:00 a.m. So if the mail’s delivered before then, sorry.”

That moment came after Scandoval made headlines in March, which left Ann feeling “crushed” being that she “did not know” about Tom and Rachel’s affair.

“As a personal assistant, you become part of your bosses’ lives. It’s no secret that I dearly love Ariana. She’s incredible and so cool,” Ann said. “The three of us would hang, and there’d be times where I would have to, for work, stay later and you start feeling kind of like a family a little bit, and you become really close.”

“They were there for me when my dad passed away, which was July of 2022. Those times when you really need people in your life, they were there. So it was kind of refueling feelings of my parents’ divorce,” she added. “… Having lost my dad and then I have an estranged relationship with my mother, choosing your family, that’s how you kind of cope with it in the healthiest way. You find your family. In a sense, they were my family.”

After that shock wore off, Ann said she experienced “that ice cold feeling that just runs through your body.”

“When I found in the tabloids how long it was going on for, the seven, eight months, I did the math in my head and was just shocked,” she said, before reflecting on how her boss’ actions impacted her. “My identity in this industry, to many people I am just Tom Sandoval’s assistant. I’m not an individual. That is not relevant in many professional contexts. It does feel deeply reflective of someone you’re associated with.”

Ann, who was out of town on vacation when Scandoval began to unfold, said her return to work amid the drama was “just wild.”

“I come to work and I hear [cameras flashing]… It’s crazy,” she said. “… It is really terrifying, me going to take out the trash and them thinking Ariana’s coming out and then just sheer disappointment on the paparazzi’s faces.”

All the while, Ann was playing messenger between Tom and Ariana, as fans saw on Vanderpump Rules‘ season 11 premiere last month.

“In season 11, for the first time, I have a role of being in front [of the cameras] just because of my job,” she said. “The only way I could describe it or put context to it is [it’s like] being in the most complicated improv scene in the world, but the improv scene is also your real life. My mind is still grasping it. I’m still trying to put context to it, because it’s such a brand new way of being in my world.”

Ann said that she does “still love Ariana so dearly,” adding of Tom, “There’s love there too. I don’t know what to say right now.”

While Ann didn’t explicitly confirm that she’s no longer working for Tom, the podcast’s description notes that she and her co-host, former Viall Files personality Amanda Lifford, are “two former assistants.”

When ET spoke with Sandoval in January, he revealed how he’s changed since his cheating scandal.

“Going through that has really helped me put in perspective things that are really important,” he said. “[It] helped me grow, as far as prioritizing certain things. And [it] really just put me to the test to see what I’m made of.”

He also urged fans to remember he’s “not a character,” but rather “a human being,” adding, “I’m a real person. Just try to keep that in mind.”

Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays on Bravo.

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