Katie Maloney revealed what she wished wasn’t shown on Vanderpump Rules and shared her thoughts on Tom Schwartz‘s “weird” relationship with Jo Wenberg during a podcast appearance days ago.
As she reflected on how she lost herself amid her marriage to Schwartz, 40, and said she was a “shell of a woman,” Katie, 36, said Schwartz blamed her for his infidelity while also slamming his “gross” behavior, opening up about the “biggest misconception” fans have of her from the Bravo reality series, and confirming what’s next.
“I’m excited about the unknown,” Katie admitted on the September 21 episode of Almost Adulting. “I like that I don’t know what’s next or what’s gonna happen and anything can happen.”
According to Katie, the unknown used to scare her.
“I was settled. I had the house and the husband. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m good.’ And then when I was getting the divorce, I was like, ‘Oh my God. What’s gonna happen? I don’t know. I’m just gonna be on my own,’” she explained. “That was terrifying but now I’m like, this is actually liberating and exciting.”
Although Katie acknowledged that she may remain single, she said she’d “rather be alone and happy than with the wrong person.”
As for marriage and kids, Katie revealed she could go either way, depending on who she ends up meeting.
“I don’t want to get divorced again so if avoiding marriage will avoid that, that’s fine. [But] I would like to meet someone and have the rest of my life with somebody. I still believe in that kind of love,” she explained.
When Katie was then asked for the “biggest misconception” people have of her, she signaled to the dynamic between her and Schwartz post-split.
“This whole thing of like, I asked for boundaries with Tom, like, ‘Hey can you not maybe make out with people that are on the show with us or in the friend group?’ And then people were saying, ‘Well you dumped him. You’re the one who asked for the divorce.’ I don’t get feelings? I can’t have feelings?” she wondered, giving a nod to Schwartz’s Mexico encounter with Raquel Leviss, 29, on season 10.
“That was a really frustrating thing that like, it’s oh, I wanted to get divorced. This is my dream. I wasn’t really left with a choice. I wanted to be happy but it doesn’t mean I was stoked on it,” she continued. “I’m like, ‘Y’all watched our entire relationship play out and you saw him cheat on me and dump drinks on my head. Y’all basically saw this coming long before I did. And yet you’re saying I blindsided him with this?’ It’s wild to me. It takes two to tango but I put in the work to try to be a better partner.”
Although Katie admitted that she missed her friendship with Schwartz last year as their divorce was finalized in October, she said she doesn’t anymore.
“After New Year’s… There was definitely a turning point where I was like, ‘I’m good.’ I think when I started watching the show and seeing how he was behaving and seeing how he was talking about me. I was like, “This is gross to me,’” she revealed. “I kind of started to resent him a little bit and that was a gift. That was helpful.”
Looking back on her marriage, Katie admitted to overstaying.
“I held on to that relationship because I was in love with him, and I was wanting a future, everything with him. I think I was also very much broken. My confidence and self-worth was very much broken down,” she confessed. “There was infidelity and cheating and stuff that happened and he blamed a lot of it on me as well and I just took it.”
In addition to accepting the blame for Schwartz’s missteps, Katie said she took a backseat to the rest of his life.
“I never felt prioritized. He didn’t really have my back or defend me or make me feel supported or heard and I just wanted that validation from him. So I made myself smaller in ways,” she reasoned. “I lost myself. I was very much like a shell of a woman.”
Luckily, after starting to work on herself, Katie’s confidence was restored and she was finally able to better gauge what was going on in her life — and what she wanted for her future.
“I was just like, ‘What are you doing? You aren’t happy. This isn’t what you want. You want a full life. You want more than this and you know you deserve it. You know you’re not getting what you want. You know you’re not being loved in the way you deserve to be loved, this isn’t the kind of marriage you wanted. You want somebody that is gonna like, put you on a pedestal in the way you deserve,’” she shared. “I was not asking for the world. I was asking for somebody to show up for me and they couldn’t. Over and over and over again.”
After coming to the realization that divorce was her only option, Katie said the chemistry between her and Schwartz fizzled.
“I became emotionally withdrawn. I still loved him but the love between us, that connection, that romance was not there anymore,” she revealed.
While it has been nearly a year since their divorce was finalized, Katie said, “Time flies,” and confirmed that things are “very much” over between them.
Although Katie also said that “at this point,” she isn’t having to deal with another woman in Schwartz’s life, she said it’s “bound to happen at some point” before giving a nod to his relationship with Jo.
“He’s already had this kind of weird situation with someone so far and it’s weirded me out a little bit but I’m kind of at this point used to it,” she shared, noting that it will be “a little awkward” if and when Schwartz gets into an official romance.
Also on the podcast, Katie recalled a moment she wished fans never saw on Pump Rules.
“I wish it never aired because it was taken highly out of context is when I told Tom that his penis didn’t work. Because I didn’t mean it as to shame him or to say your penis actually doesn’t work,” she explained. “We were talking about how I felt like he always blames me for all of our problems… I’m like, ‘What if the reason why we don’t have sex is because your penis doesn’t work?’ That’s not fair. We’re both to blame for the problems that we have.”
“Nobody knows because it really didn’t come out or get shown that way but that was the context of what I meant,” she added.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 is expected to premiere on Bravo later this year or early next year.