Vanderpump Rules alum Tom Sandoval shared the sweet way ex Kristen Doute reached out to him after his stellar America’s Got Talent debut and the birth of her and Luke Broderick’s baby girl Kaia Lily.
Tom Sandoval is SUR-ving up a surprising update on where he stands with ex Kristen Doute.
Following the Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras frontman’s stellar audition on America’s Got Talent, the former Vanderpump Rules couple recently reconnected.
“Luke [Broderick] and Kristen both reached out to me,” Sandoval exclusively told E! News. “Of course, I congratulated Luke and Kristen on Kaia Lily, because I know they just had their baby.”
But this isn’t the first time he and Doute—who called it quits in 2013 after season two of VPR—have talked since their respective departures from the Bravo reality series.
As Sandoval noted, “We talk to each other from time to time. Especially Luke, I see him more often.”
When it comes to supporting each other’s milestones all these years later, Sandoval sweetly added, “We’ve been through a lot together.”
But Doute and Broderick weren’t the only famous friends who reached out after Sandoval wowed the AGT judges during the June 24 episode.
Vanderpump Rules‘ Scheana Shay, Brock Davies and Tom Schwartz all sent well wishes, according to Tom, as did more past costars from other reality series.
“From Traitors, Danielle Reyes, Dylan Efron reached out to me,” the 42-year-old shared, “as well as from House of Villains Johnny Bananas. There’s just been a lot of people. Tara Reid also reached out from Special Forces.”
And Sandoval has been completely overwhelmed by the encouragement after he made it through the first round of auditions.
CraSH/Shutterstock/Trae Patton/Bravo“The outpouring of support, I feel so blessed and lucky to have friends like that are giving me so much love,” he gushed. “It’s been really awesome. I appreciate it.”
There are underdogs, and then there are underdogs. America’s Got Talent has always been about looking for the most exciting Acts, whoever they are, regardless of background. But one particular group during Episode 5 brought quite a bit of baggage to Auditions. Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras is fronted by a singer who was once the Most Hated.
Sandoval, formerly of Vanderpump Rules and most recently of The Traitors, explained backstage, “I made some bad choices and was involved in a really bad cheating scandal. I let down a lot of people. It pretty much destroyed my life. It was absurd how much coverage and how big it became.”
“I feel a lot of pressure. I just hope the audience and the Judges see who I am as a musician, rather than just somebody on a reality show,” he added.
The audience was iffy on Sandoval at the start
The women in the audience, especially, didn’t know what to make of Sandoval when they saw him, so he addressed the elephant in the room right away.
“With being on a reality TV show, it’s very much about your personal life. A couple years ago I was involved in a scandal and I was labeled as ‘the most hated man in America’ by New York Times,” he explained, before gesturing to his band. “It was really really rough and I was in a very dark place. I felt as though I had nothing in my life and this band was the only thing that kept me going.”
Fortunately, he had not just his bandmates behind him but also his friend and fellow Vanderpump Rules alum, Tom Schwartz, and Sandoval’s girlfriend Victoria Lee Robinson in the audience to support him.
“Let’s get America to like you,” said Simon Cowell, as Howie Mandel briefly recapped the scandal to Sofía Vergara (“No wonder nobody likes him then,” Mel B. remarked).
Find out Sandoval’s fate tonight on AGT at 8/9c on NBC.
