Oh, Tom Sandoval, may you never stop bringing the drama. Following his unceremonious murder on The Traitors, Tom is opening up about his experience on the reality competition and his on-screen nemesis, Chrishell Stauss.
From the very first episode of season 3, Chrishell made it no secret that, when it comes to Scandoval, she considered herself firmly on Team Ariana. Throughout the season, she consistently pushed for Tom to be murdered or banished. She even went so far as to shade Tom on Instagram, refusing to share his solo Traitors poster in a cast post.
As someone who is also on Team Ariana, I was fully supportive of her game, but now Tom is calling Chrishell out, claiming that she isn't as close to Ariana Madix as she seems. “It's really strange to me because we had a long car [ride] to the castle and Chrishell told me, ‘By the way, I do follow Ariana on Instagram,’” Tom told People, adding that he was totally cool with it because “a lot of my good friends follow her” and he assured her he wouldn't hold it against her.
“But then all of a sudden, she was at the round table bringing up my personal life and the scandal and telling everyone ‘Tom's saying I'm a Traitor because I'm friends with Ariana!’ It was like, ‘Wait, how did you go from following her to being her best friend?’”
Ok, that does seem a little sketchy, but it also could have been part of her strategy. After all, she was trying to convince a group of relative strangers that she was a Faithful. One of the best ways to do that is to attack your accuser.
That said, Tom doesn't think it was strategy to win the game, but to get more followers. "Chrishell obviously came to gain those Ariana fans and those ‘I hate Tom fans,’ and to really ride those coattails of the Scandoval. And in the end, that's all she'll be remembered for on The Traitors. No one's going to be like, ‘Wow, Chrishell really played a great game!’ It'll always be ‘Wow, she really stuck it to Sandoval!‘ Which, how far did that really get her?’”
Elsewhere in his post-murder interview, Tom admitted to People that he was convinced that his Scandoval antics would get him murdered on night one. “I felt like people might bring that opinion of me into the castle and get me out right away.” TBH, I think we all thought that...right?
In a surprising twist, Tom managed to stay alive until the penultimate episode, and he was seemingly well-liked in the castle—Chrishell not included. As fellow contestant Dylan Efron told Cosmo, “He’s such a unique person. Very, very low self-awareness, very high confidence. But I love that he’s authentically himself. In a world where everyone’s afraid to be themselves, he is Tom Sandoval.” Can't argue with that!
