PEOPLE caught up with the cast for the latest issue, on newsstands Friday, as they talked about how their lives have changed since joining the show. “For so long, we lived paycheck to paycheck, tip out to tip out, taking an acting job for two or three hundred dollars,” addsAriana Madix, a bartender who joined the cast in season two. “There was a long time where I couldn’t afford health insurance, and I lived out of my car for a short period.”
Now Madix andboyfriend Tom Sandoval, also a bartender on the show, are buying a house together with a pool in Los Angeles.
Landon Nordeman
It’s a story that many of the cast members have in common. “I got health insurance three years ago, I got a credit card three years ago,” says Kristen Doute, who has been on the show since season one. “Stassi [Schroeder]and I used to split 5-dollar foot longs from Subway.”
“People have to to understand how broke [I was],” adds Brittany Cartwright, who hails from Kentucky but moved to Los Angeles to date cast member Jax Taylor. (The two are now engaged.) “I would take out loans just to pay Jax rent.”
They’re also creating brands of their own, with Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz partnering with Vanderpump for the eponymousTomTom cocktail bararound the corner from SUR, and the women of the cast recently launching their ownWitches of WeHo wine. “Lisa’s been building her kingdom for years,” says Sandoval. “I feel like we’re just starting to build ours.”
For more behind-the-scenes scoop onVanderpump Rulesand exclusive recipes from SUR (including the famous goat cheese balls!), pick up the latest issue ofPEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Beyond the extra money, the cast says being on reality television has both positive and negative emotional consequences. “Having private, intimate moments—especially in your relationship, which you want to protect and keep sacred—out there for discussion and judgement, it’s hard,” says Maloney-Schwartz, who had a publicly rocky road to marriage with husband Tom Schwartz. “But it’s a choice we made.”
“I think I’m a better person for doing this show and being forced to confront [my] demons,” adds Doute. “It’s a forced therapy session.”
Either way, it’s a lucrative lifestyle they don’t intend on giving up any time soon. “We all still have a lot of miles left in us,” says Madix. “Are we going to be working at a restaurant forever? No. But if the show can grow with us, then we can make it work.”
source: people.com
