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Ariana Madix had just one personal boundary for producers when it came to filming the 11th season of Vanderpump Rules on the heels of her former boyfriend Tom Sandoval‘s months-long affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss.
During a couple of new interviews, Ariana, 38, looked back at the start of production on the currently airing season of the Bravo reality show as she also revealed how she makes her mental health a priority and hinted that her boyfriend, Daniel Wai, will not be appearing on the upcoming, but yet-to-be-confirmed, 12th season.
“I only had one personal boundary,” Ariana shared with SheKnows on April 2. “It was: I’m not having a one-on-one conversation. That was it.”
Although Ariana and Sandoval, 41, had some awkward encounters on the show, including a heated fight over their dog on Tuesday’s episode, she refused to sit down with Sandoval for the cameras.
“It’s difficult when sometimes, you know, you do have things that you feel very deeply or that maybe you do want to talk about, but you also know that going there isn’t worth it. If you go down this rabbit hole, you might not come back up from it,” she reasoned.
As for her claim that she “wouldn’t be surprised” if viewers turned on her amid season 11, Ariana explained that she made the statement due to her refusal to edit herself for the series.
“We’ve been taught not to be comfortable with things like female rage. We’ve been taught that we have to be like smiling and and palatable for everyone in order to be likable,” she explained. “Likability in my opinion is a complete and total myth anyways.”
“But I think that on any show it’s difficult for anyone to see 360 degrees of a person. And so you know, when you’re seeing snippets here and there, I’m not in charge of what snippets are going to be seen,” she added.
With so much on her plate, including a run on Broadway, Ariana said that when it comes to her mental health, it’s important to have true time off.
“I think what’s important for me is the off time has to be off time,” she shared. “Because we have our phones and we’re always reachable, sometimes it can be tough to be like, ‘This is the time I need to rest or this is the time I need to focus.’ So, really designating those times is what makes it easy for me.”
Amid another interview, Ariana spoke of Daniel’s appearances on season 11, stating that the fitness trainer made a couple of cameos as a favor and suggesting that fans won’t see him at all on season 12.
“It’s definitely something that he’s not very excited about but he did it for me as a favor,” Ariana told Us Weekly. “I think that it would’ve been very difficult to just like… I couldn’t have pretended that he wasn’t a part of my life last summer. And that’s what we do. We live our lives and we show that, and so he was a very good sport, he kind of did me that little favor. But he’s definitely not going to be on it very much.”
Then, when she was asked if he didn’t want to film again, Ariana admitted, “I don’t think he’ll be back.”
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.