Tom Schwartz Opens Up About a Growing Rift With Tom Sandoval — Are the Toms Done for Good?
Tom Schwartz says he’s wiping the slate clean—putting Tom Tom and Schwartz and Sandy’s up for sale and declaring his old life over—as he opens up about where he stands with Tom Sandoval on Nick Viall’s Viall Files podcast.
Tom Schwartz is hitting the reset button on pretty much everything: the bars, the bromance, the whole vibe. He said as much on Nick Viall's podcast, and if you have been following the Vanderpump orbit, the details are both blunt and a little startling.
Starting over, for real
"I’m completely starting my life over. My old life is gone. TomTom’s for sale, Schwartz and Sandy’s is for sale, I’m not going to be a bootleg Lisa Vanderpump."
That was Schwartz, 43, on the Wednesday, May 6 episode of Nick Viall's 'The Viall Files' (Viall is 45). The bar talk is not vague: both TomTom and Schwartz & Sandy's are on the block. For clarity, their hospitality run kicked off back in 2018 with TomTom; now both spots are up for sale, and Schwartz says he is not trying to be a discount version of his former boss' empire after all.
Where things stand with Sandoval
Schwartz says he and Tom Sandoval, also 43, just spent about an hour on FaceTime and that Sandoval sounded upbeat and optimistic. Asked point‑blank if there has been distance, Schwartz did not dance around it: yes. They took a long break, and he says the heat around Schwartz & Sandy's nearly blew up the friendship. The blowback ties directly to Sandoval's high‑profile affair with Raquel Leviss, who at the time was a Vanderpump Rules costar and close friend of his then‑girlfriend Ariana Madix. According to Schwartz, that whole period almost sank them, but he insists he is over it now and not carrying resentment.
Backing Sandoval's current hustle
Despite all that, Schwartz is publicly in Sandoval's corner. He shouted out Sandoval's recent reality TV stints and his turn on America's Got Talent with his band, Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras. Schwartz says Sandoval is buried in a new project he could not really describe yet but claims he is giving it 1000 percent and living in it every day. Translation: whatever it is, Sandoval is all‑in.
Why the reset makes sense
If you watched Vanderpump Rules season 11, you know Schwartz has said he felt stuck holding the financial bag at Schwartz & Sandy's after the scandal. He also painted last year as a breaking point: the divorce from Katie Maloney, his brother Bert dealing with serious health issues, bar problems stacking up, and then the cheating saga detonating on top of it all. It was, in his words back then, the worst possible cherry on an already rough sundae.
Yes, he is in love again
On the personal side, Schwartz says he is full‑on in love with Kiana Carroll, 27, whom he calls 'Kiki.' He says they have been together for about six or seven months and it has turned into something genuinely great. She models, but he swears that is the least interesting thing about her: he describes her as very funny, widely traveled, independent, and thriving. He even joked that in a sea of green flags, he is the red one, and called her his 'karma' for how his past relationships went.
Big picture: Schwartz is selling the bars, repairing the friendship, and betting on a cleaner slate. For someone who once seemed intent on building a mini‑Vanderpump empire, that is a pretty stark mission statement.