'Vanderpump Rules' star Ariana Madix competing on 'Dancing with the Stars' this fall

Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix will be competing on Dancing with the Stars' this fall.


Good Morning America unveiled Dancing with the Stars' first celebrity contestant for the new season on Friday by announcing that Ariana will be putting on some dancing shoes for Season 32.

RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)

GMA aired footage of Ariana spending time with Dancing with the Stars judge Derek Hough inside of the Vanderpump Rules star's sandwich shop, Something About Her.

And the show additionally wrote in a tweet, "There's just something about her! #PumpRules star Ariana Madix is heading to @officialdwts this fall and we can't wait to see her moves on the dance floor! #DWTS."


The tweet included a video of Derek, a six-time Dancing with the Stars mirrorball trophy champion, teasing, "This season on Dancing with the Stars, we are going absolutely mad -- mad for Madix."

Ariana, 38, then steps into the frame and confirms, "That's right!... I will be joining the cast of Dancing with the Stars this season."

"That's right!" Derek, also 38, says. "Say goodbye to the drama and hello to the dance floor."

The two wrap up the clip by looking at each other and saying, "Let's dance!"

The rest of the Dancing with the Stars cast will be announced on September 13, and the season will feature Alfonso Ribeiro as host and Julianne Hough returning to the ballroom as co-host.


Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli will be reprising their judging roles, joining Derek on the panel of experts.

Derek and Ariana had sparked speculation of Ariana's potential Dancing with the Stars participation on Thursday, July 6 when they were spotted outside of her West Hollywood sandwich shop -- which has yet to open -- laughing and hugging each other.

The New York Post's Page Six previously reported in April that Ariana would be signing on for Dancing with the Stars next season.

"ABC is in late stage conversations with [Ariana] to be a contestant to join DWTS this fall," a source told the magazine at the time.

"[She] already received all of the approvals and sign-offs from NBC Universal," the source added.


Ariana will be the first non-The Real Housewives Bravo reality star to compete on the ABC reality dancing competition, which will also stream -- for the second straight season -- on Disney+.

Ariana will also be starring on Vanderpump Rules' upcoming eleventh season, which began filming on June 28. But Raquel Leviss' future on the show remains uncertain in the aftermath of "Scandoval."

Raquel is still checking her mental health at a treatment facility following her six-month affair with co-star Tom Sandoval behind Ariana's back. Raquel was Ariana's best friend when she and Tom were sleeping together.

Ariana and Tom had been dating for about nine years when the scandal made headlines in March, and news of the betrayal ultimately ended Tom and Ariana's relationship that same month.

"Raquel is currently in talks about returning for the next season of Vanderpump Rules. However, she hasn't decided whether or not she wants to come back to the show," a source told Us Weekly in late June.


Raquel's treatment, which she began in April and was reportedly designed to help her "learn the basis of her decisions and to grow from her mistakes with the hope of making better choices and becoming a better person."

Despite being subjected to backlash and shaming, Raquel filmed Vanderpump Rules' three-part Season 10 reunion before checking herself into rehab.

Bravo executive Andy Cohen joked about -- and later apologized for -- how Raquel seemed "unemotional" and heavily medicated at the time of the reunion.

According to Us, Raquel is very apologetic for having slept with Tom and for hurting Ariana.

Raquel even previously expressed how she hated being secretive and so deceitful, sneaking around with Tom even around the time Ariana's grandmother passed away.


Looking back on her decade-long romance with Tom, Ariana shared with Glamour magazine in June, "I feel like I'm someone who craves intimacy outside of just penetrative sex, and that was something that I was deprived of for so long."

"As women, we might bring something up a bunch of times and then we just stop," Ariana continued.

"That's where I was at. I was like, 'I cannot keep nagging this man to want to come home and spend time with me.'"

Ariana went on to vent about how "so many men" in general feel "entitled" to a woman's body.

"[They act] entitled to sex because you're in a relationship with them," Ariana said. "I am not your Fleshlight. I spelled out what I needed, but hello. It's a two-person situation."

Ariana broke her silence about her breakup with Tom on NBC's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in May and revealed, "We do not interact on any level."


While Ariana and Tom are still living in the same $2 million Los Angeles home, temporarily, Ariana said they only communicate through "go betweens" and that her family "hates" him and Tom is "dead" to her brother.

Ariana also previously told Raquel that she's "dead" to her and their friendship is over. Ariana said Raquel seems "lost and empty" and she doesn't know who Raquel is anymore.

When asked what it would take for her to forgive Tom and Raquel, Ariana bluntly announced, "That's not happening."

But Ariana was apparently able to move on from the scandal, and she's currently seeing someone new.

Ariana has been spotted, multiple times, packing on PDA with fitness coach Daniel Wai in the wake of her breakup with Tom. Ariana and Daniel apparently began seeing each other in mid-April.

While Ariana played coy about her love life on Watch What Happens Live, she teased to viewers, "I'll just say that I am very happy and very satisfied."


A source recently told Us that Ariana is "definitely open to seeing where things go" with Daniel but she "isn't totally ready to jump into a serious relationship."

Meanwhile, Tom told TMZ in late April that he was "really happy" to see Ariana doing so well.

After all, an insider source claimed to Us on March 3 that Tom and Ariana had been "having problems for a while." The insider claimed the pair's relationship "only came to a breaking point" the day prior to their split on March 1.

But Tom claimed he officially broke up with Ariana on Valentine's Day in February.

Tom also shared on the April 11 episode of the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast how his romance with Raquel started with a "magnetic" kiss last summer.

"I felt something that I hadn't felt in so long emotionally," Tom explained. "The feelings were something very, very strong."


Tom claimed that he had attempted to break up with Ariana once he realized he had strong feelings for Raquel.

"Like many relationships, it felt like it became more of like a best friends, family [thing] -- sometimes roommates," Tom continued.

"There were a lot of ways where the relationship was just lacking the intimacy, the connection. We would travel more by ourselves than we would together. I would go to weddings by myself."

Tom said he was seeing and FaceTiming with Raquel "as often" as he could," even though that "sounds horrible."

"And Ariana didn't even notice because that's just how separate our lives were," Tom claimed. "I had to actually tell her, 'How have you not noticed how distant I've been lately?'"

RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)


Ariana apparently believes Tom even had sex with Raquel in one of their guest rooms while she was sleeping in their bed.







About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski