Ann Maddox was nervous to see her former boss, Tom Sandoval, at the Vanderpump Rules reunion — especially after she started working for his ex Ariana Madix.
“I feel really bad, dude. I’m so sorry,” Ann, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, May 29, while promoting her partnership with Alexa. “But I saw an opportunity to work for a lovely, amazing woman — and life is short — and I wanted this opportunity.”
Ann shared that walking into the reunion was “a little stressful,” especially after she started working for Ariana, 38, and Katie Maloney for their sandwich shop, Something About Her. While previously working as Sandoval’s assistant, Ann was integral in acting as a mediator between Sandoval, 41, and Ariana in the early stages of their breakup.
“My job is to make it less uncomfortable, and I love people and I love my job, and I feel like, again, as a comedian, it is easier to make things less tense,” she explained. “And of course, my job is to be helpful. I’m there to support. So I was easily able to lay into that, just focus on that.”
During the reunion, Ann was worried Sandoval wouldn’t speak to her, especially with her new employment status. However, she was put at ease after Sandoval cracked a joke about sandwiches.
“It relieved any tension,” she told Us. “You see your old boss walking up to you and your new boss who you love is right next to you and you’re like, ‘Oh God, what’s about to happen?’ And then they’re like, it’s a friendly joke, and you’re like, ‘Oh, thank God.’”
Since the reunion, Ann has been hard at work as part of the Something About Her team, which was an “opportunity” that she was “interested” in immediately. Ann told Us that she has a passion for “customer relations” and was excited that Ariana and Katie were helping her “grow” professionally.
“It’s been great,” she gushed about her new job. “I was telling my friends this morning, it’s so cool that I’m texting my bosses and all three bosses are powerful women. That is awesome.”
Ann added that since she knows Ariana and Katie in a “friend capacity” as well, it’s been “really exciting” to “help them get their vision started.”
While Ann is best known as being the hardest-working assistant on Vanderpump Rules, she has had a little bit of help from some of her favorite Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo Frames and Echo Pop.
“I literally tell her my schedule for the day, [and] have her take notes for me,” she told Us. “I have a lot of shower thoughts and a lot of driving thoughts, so I’m constantly telling Alexa, ‘Please write this down, remind me to say that.”
Vanderpump Rules season 11 is currently streaming on Peacock.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
