'Vanderpump Rules' star Tom Schwartz unleashes on ex Jo Wenberg in text scandal
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Regarding the numerous accusations leveled against him in recent weeks by his ex-girlfriend Jo Wenberg, Tom Schwartz is speaking out.
Tom made an appearance on Brittany Cartwright's podcast after Jo blasted him for "gaslighting" her, revealed texts he supposedly sent her, and accused him of persistently reaching out despite his new relationship with Sophia Skoro. Tom labeled Jo a "compulsive liar" and accused her of acting strangely around his family.
"I tried not to touch this. I’m taking the high road. I’m Mr Rise Above. I don’t go looking for negative stuff online, but people inevitably send you stuff, and I’m seeing Jo talking sh*t about me, like random clips, and I’ve tried not to respond; just ignore it. Like, saying I’m her soulmate, reading my texts on a live stream, and I just feel like I have to address this because I’m starting to get negative comments on my social media," Tom stated on Friday, May 24 episode of 'When Reality Hits With Jax and Brittany'.
"Clearly, she’s acting out. Her feelings are hurt. I don’t want to invalidate her feelings, but also, I have feelings, and they’re valid too," he added.
He continued, "I want to shed a light on my point of view and why I pulled away from her because I feel like she’s kind of using social media to create this sort of ‘Poor me, I got played,’ bread-crumbing narrative. She’s building a following at my expense, and I’m getting tired of it."
Regarding the motivation for Jo's alleged lies, Tom said, "I don’t know if she has a great support system. She’s like, looking for validation on social media... She’s looking for short-time clout and imaginary online sympathy, and I feel like she’s sacrificing any chance she has for legitimacy or credibility."
Not only did Tom view her decision to reveal his texts as a "violation," but he also denied having spoken to her recently. "I'm just like, what the f*ck is she talking about? I’m not at all," he pressed. "That stuff, it just really rubbed me the wrong way. There’s too many lies...I have a list of minimum 20, 20 substantiated, confirmed lies," he added.
'Vanderpump Rules' star Tom Schwartz admits to seeing 'red flags' in ex Jo Wenberg
Tom claims that Jo has been removed from his contacts list and blacklisted on social media. However, whether he likes it or not, he has still received messages about her.
"It’s frustrating to see her playing the role of a victim. Sometimes you really dig somebody and then you find some things out about them that causes you to look at them in a completely different way. Or sometimes you just really dig somebody and then the feelings go away," he claimed.
Tom stated that he started to see "erratic behavior" and "red flags" at the beginning of filming 'Vanderpump Rules' Season 11, which is when things took a turn for him and Jo.
"It was a lot of things and I’m not gonna divulge most of those things but one of the biggest things is I found up that she makes up … In my experience, she’s a compulsive liar," he disclosed.
'Vanderpump Rules' star Tom Schwartz accused Jo Wenberg of lying about babysitting producer's children
When Brittany accused Jo of lying to her and Jax Taylor about the timing of their phone call to inform her about Kristen Doute's dog death—an allegation that was untrue—Tom stated that although some of Joe's purported statements were "benign and nonsensical," others were "malicious or manipulative."
"And low-key, what she’s doing with these livestreams, like building a following at my expense, it’s slightly manipulating the audience," Tom remarked. "The first lie that I substantiated and I found out, just casually one day, she mentioned she used to babysit for one of our executive producer’s kids," he reminisced.
He added, "I had no reason to question that, but I asked him weeks later, and he’s like, 'No, I never met her before the show started.' That was the first seed of doubt. I didn’t confront her. I was just like, 'Okay,' and then as time went on... People started coming out of the woodwork and telling me things about her, and I would shut them down, sometimes even go to bat for her and defend her. [And] as time went on, some other things happened."
'Vanderpump Rules' star Tom Schwartz's sister had to block Jo Wenberg
There were other matters at hand as well, such as Tom's family.
"Some of the things I found out that she told my family behind my back, really f*cking pissed me off: my mom told me, my sister told me, my brother told me... My family got involved, and they were like, really f*cking dangerous accusations. She went behind my back and called my family and said some f*cked up things," he said.
Jo also had an odd experience with his sister, who had previously supported their union. "She spent two nights with Jo, and she said it was one of the worst experiences of her life. She had to block her afterward, and she’s like, ‘I’m traumatized.’ She apologized to me profusely for weeks for trying to push her on me," Tom said.
Finally, Tom had this message for Jo, "Show them your hobbies, the sh*t you do, your hair business, surfing, go be zany and wild, just don’t f*cking try to build a following at my expense."
